Clubbing 'arena events' .... Is it just pop music now?

Even though i'm at this very moment listening to Sean Tyas's ASOT 500 set right now and really enjoying it, i cant help but wonder about this whole thing with large club events in arenas and the like.

Obviously DJ's want to do it, cos its a massive payday for them, and it looks like the likes of the top Dutch DJ's seem to spend most of their lives doing big tours.

..... but is it at the expense of 'real' clubbing. Obviously there must be an electric atmosphere at these huge events with the sheer levels of cash and production being thrown at them, but does it even bear any relationship to the scene that it came out of? Does it just create a new market for the people at the top of their game (Sasha, Armin, Cox etc) that sucks up people's money and time going to these events, but at the expense of not supporting their local clubs?

Also, doesnt it just all end up being a bit like pop concerts where people have their Idols to worship in a big arena with crowds of faceless people? It all seems to be going that way where there really isnt any difference between ASOT 500 and Lady Gaga in terms of the event.

I'm not saying i don't do it myself (I like festivals), but the ever forward march of the corporatisation of the dance music scene has taken most of us along with it.... dunno if that's a good thing.

I think the UK are just a fair few steps behind the continent on many levels. the best we can do are festivals but i dont think the interest is there for any kind of event organiser to risk the sheet's on piling that much money into production. If you look at any of the Qdance event's in holland, watch the video's in awe and realise how much the UK is missing out. i mean yeah - Qdance is mainly hardstyle, but just look at how much trouble they put into production:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI_A76sSeAc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiHk4lMq0n8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w56wLSxlf8

Yeah me too. I've been to plenty of 'spectacles' and they are good fun and the like, but the best nights seem to be more smaller more intimate surroundings with people you can have fun with.

Its a shame to see a new generation of clubbers so militant about getting out and about to the latest and greatest 'big event', but they aren't quite so enthusiastic about the scene at its very core.

Big events are like Macdonalds Happy Meals. They taste nice at the time but at the end of the day they aren't good for you.

Lastly, the scene is increasingly driven from the 'top down' instead of it being grass roots like it once was. How long before someone other than the DJ's is deciding what is good for us, and what isnt eh

VERY striking analogy that brid

i wouldnt say going to big events is bad for you though (unless of course you take in account my antics at global last year )

To be fair, that just looks a bit cheap and gimmicky for something clearly so expensive, to my eyes anyway.

I get the impression that while the European countries often have these huge events, Britain has more of a serious-clubber, underground type scene which isn't simply limited to the capital; something a lot of said European countries lack.

And I'm quite thankful for it, to a certain degree. I.e small 'intimate' venues generally do bollocks all for me. Needs to be a proper club (Warehouse 34, Foundation etc) not a tiny shitty room.

Also, it often annoys me to see clubs so plain and boring, when all a room needs is a creative mind and a bit of deco to turn it into somewhere special.

whey. it's better than a fucking hired caddilac and 2 fruit machines mate

This.

You gotta wonder if DS:NE would have failed miserably if it didnt have the brand name behind it. This is in no way a criticism of the MASSIVE efforts everyone put in for that in the slightest, but i reckon it reflects the changing tastes of everyone these days. Are people just afraid to try something WITHOUT a brand behind it?

The good thing is that the people of this board are seen time and time again at smaller nights, so there is no problem there, but the UK seems to have reached the point where people 'out of the know' have to have their clubbing served up to them by a massive PR effort.

Maybe its because we were at it from a very early stage, and people have been through the 'scene infancy' period LONG ago.

It's been tried on many occasions. It never worked.

Fact of that matter is that trance (and everything else) hasn't had a really decent venue round here since Promise at Foundation. Nobody can be arsed to go to little club night with 50 people on a regular basis, it just isn't the same. At Digital Society you knew it wasn't going to be another one of those. Everybody was going.

The brand simply guarantees that everybody who gives a fuck is going to be there. Innit.

So that begs the question .... how do you establish a brand in this day and age, if nobody wants to turn up to a small night?

Granted, Digital Society have done it - and boy have they done it well, but its kind of a chicken and egg question from that point.

Start a night in a city that has built up a prominent clubbing culture off the back of a wicked venue (i.e Leeds & MyHouse) with a massive student population.

You're not going to pull in a new batch of students (who become the type of people/friends of who have generally frequented this message board over the years) if they turn up to a trance night and it consists of 15 people who know each other. Doesn't really have the wow factor.

Foundation did the trick because it was underground and cool. Digital wasn't. The type of people who would have really understood Foundation, thought Digital was shit and got into Indie. This created a vaccum which sucked in a rather unsavoury crowd of pikeys. Plus ecstasy went really shit.

I reckon.

haha!