As many have already heard, Amsterdam’s underground hotspot venue – Cruquiusgilde – is pulling the plug. Treading with a sigh, we’re uncovering the dialogue of feelings behind the venues demise, and dwelling on five great party nights the venue curated.
Receiving their 24-hour license just last year, Cruquiusgilde is shutting down due to new noise restrictions imposed by the municipality. The temporary club, which would be officially open until the first quarter of 2017, is unable to operate within the short-term due to financial constraints. Thus the owners have affirmed closing down early is the best option.
While this comes as a bit of a surprise, its definitely not the first club to get thrown under the bus. First it was the famed Trouw, for obvious reasons, but leaving ravers in an existential crisis. Then Closure, which had to shut down due to electrical issues and a result of poor planning. After that, Studio 80 shut down out of the blue due to a change in ownership. Now we’re staring down the death barrel of one of our most esteemed underground venues. This has an effect on both party-goers and artists interested in the underground scene, but in differing ways.
For the party goer, Cruquiusgilde’s closure does not really damage the party options, as we’ve still got the newly opened De School, outsider club Radion, the big room of De Marktkantine, and the squatted cultural space OT301. The programs and line-ups are unique and luckily not interchangeable, each place has its own aesthetic, and all operate quite late in the night (with both De School and Radion with 24 hour licenses). What will be missed is Cruquiusgilde’s intimacy, and the fact that you will no longer be able to order drinks from that beautiful bartender everyone was always raving about.
For the artist on the other hand, its a bit of a different story. Cruquiusgilde was a relatively accessible space for lesser known artists to throw an event. With that option gone, it changes the game a bit. But while it comes off as a hit to the underground scene, in reality its not that bad.
Sure, (a) there were probably a few DJs who wanted to play there to throw a nice little label night at some point, and sure (b) it doesn’t make sense that noise regulations would arise for Cruquiusgilde (considering its so far outside the city and within an industrial sector), but there are still options for the underground – just keep your eyes peeled.
If anything, what we can take from Cruquiusgilde is a DIY attitude – something of which will likely emerge as a more standard concept by local artists within the Amsterdam in the years to come. If we look at NYC, after the tyrannical reign of Rudy Giuliani on the entire nightlife sector, a DIY attitude was adopted by many. This ended up revitalizing an entire community of dance-floor geared artists, venues, and labels – most of which were curating scuzzy techno with Korg Electribes, minimal-wave tape demos, proto-techno (Detroit) inspired bangers, the famed ‘outsider house’ style, and subterranean grooves crafted with fruity loops and shit Dell computers. Bottom line, if you carry a DIY attitude and keep your head up, you’ll emerge from the cloud and dust and something will appear at the intersection of your eyes.
Moving on with our ‘now established push-through mindset’, in order to ritualize Cruquiusgilde before its grand death ceremony, we wanted to create a tribute to the venue and describe the distinct quality of its aesthetics. To find out more details for their ‘Closing Month’ program – visit their Facebook page.
