Dance music has become “tedious and diluted,” says the promoter.
The founder of Bloc, which held its final weekender at Butlins in Minehead last week, has said he’s quit promoting raves because the crowd are “too safe and boring”. George Hull, who set up the house and techno festival over 10 years ago, also criticised “safe space” policies as “depressing” in a column explaining why he’s stepped away from dance festivals.
Writing in the Spectator, Hull said: “Young people these days just don’t know how to rave. They are too safe and boring.
The ‘90s generation of ravers were defined by “freedom, rebellion and pissing off your parents”, focused on “dancing all night under the influence of their drug of choice: ecstasy,” he said. In comparison, today’s “hipsters” are “an uptight bunch. They like dance music, but they lack the sense of abandon that made raving so much fun.”
He added: “Last weekend, in a last stand for youthful rebellion in this country, we put on our final event, and it went on until 10 a.m., as any good rave should. We received complaints that there was not enough activity during the daytime. The kids wanted an early night.”
Listing some of the customer requests he’d had for shuttle services, vegan meals and WiFi, he argued that hipsters “fetishise the authenticity of an independent operator” yet “expect a level of service that can only be delivered by a multinational corporation.”
He also identified the introduction of “safe space” policies as the “most depressing trend of all”.
“Once, the rave was supposed to feel like a distinctly unsafe space, even if the danger was illusory. There were no rules — that’s why we enjoyed it,” he wrote.
“Under the hipsters’ watch, dance music has become tedious and diluted. A monstrous cabal of overpaid circuit DJs titillating a precious and unimaginative bunch of wimpy pseudo-hedonists at a carefully designed ‘safe space’. In broad daylight. If that’s your idea of raving, you can keep it. I’m out.”
After wrapping up the weekender for good, Bloc now plans to build a “super club” in London.