La Cabane is closing : our reaction

Brussels By Night, a professional network bringing together 50 actors of the Brussels nightlife scene, is once again sounding the alarm: Club La Cabane is closing and will become an event space. After three major club and night-bar closures (Bonnefooi, Spirito, Reset) since early 2025, the disappearance of this venue marks a dramatic turning point. This is no longer a series of isolated incidents: it is a structural collapse of the nocturnal cultural fabric. Moreover, this closure goes against the apparent political intention to decentralize nightlife toward the outskirts.

La Cabane embodied everything a cultural club should be: an intimate capacity in a city where large venues are becoming scarce, a high-quality program with a demanding editorial line, and a strong focus on local artists alongside the best of the international scene. La Cabane had become essential to the local artistic ecosystem, offering continuous support to collectives and emerging artists, playing a major role as a springboard, and contributing to Brussels’ visibility in Belgium and across Europe.

For reference, international artists fought to play there, even for fees lower than usual. Recently it hosted Etienne De Crécy, Carl Craig, Shanti Celeste, Palms Trax, MCDE…

As early as September 2024, we warned of the imminent threat hanging over a dozen Brussels venues. The reasons:

• procedures linked to neighbourhood complaints, often disproportionate,

• unbearable real-estate pressure (rents, permits granted to immediate neighbours for activities incompatible with the venue’s — often historic — use, as seen with Spirito, Mirano…)

• exploding energy, banking and operational costs (insurance, staff, harm-reduction measures),

• profitability that has become impossible,

• a sharp rise in administrative crackdowns (e.g. inspections at Fuse and La Cabane… with forced music shutdowns),

• stigmatization of the sector for its supposedly supportive role in illicit psychotropic substances,

• and in a year, the ban on smoking rooms (which will result in the closure of at least one establishment out of two).

  
  

The temporary closure of Fuse in 2023 was already no longer an isolated case. The risks laid out in this document are now materializing one after another. And now La Cabane is disappearing — exactly as predicted. La Cabane is not just “one more” closure. It is a major political signal. It is an admission that Brussels has failed to protect one of its most important venues, even though:

• clubbing was recognized in 2023 by the Region as part of Brussels’ intangible cultural heritage,

• subsidized institutions themselves are now organizing nightlife events — so how can policymakers who support “institutional” cultural actors allow the clubs that carry this culture all year round to die?

  
  

What more proof is needed to demonstrate the cultural value of nightlife?

We are not asking for support “in a vacuum”: we are proposing concrete solutions. We are not mourning the disappearance of a club: we are demanding structural measures, both short- and long-term, to save what remains of Brussels nightlife. Among them:

• Integrating a regional vision of nightlife into political majorities, in consultation with the dedicated reference body: the Brussels Night Council, composed of expert actors (Brussels By Night, Horeca Federation, regional ministerial cabinets, municipal administrations…).

• Adopting and firmly applying the Agent of Change principle and freezing administrative procedures against threatened clubs, along with recognizing the technical or financial impossibility of further soundproofing certain historic venues.

• Revising sound regulations for existing and active “historic” buildings.

• Creating a realistic and technically adapted soundproofing support fund for clubs.

• Creating a Nightlife Fund, similar to those that exist for cultural and artistic operators (museums, theatres, concerts…), based on existing European models and supporting projects according to a clear framework.

• Reducing employer charges for nightlife operators.

• Capping energy costs for nocturnal cultural venues.

• Considering “collective facility” status for clubs.

• Creating night-activity zones in non-residential (currently underused) areas and developing a long-term urban vision for nightlife (temporary uses, environmental considerations…).

• Developing structural funding for organizations doing long-term harm-reduction work in festive environments.

• Recognizing Brussels By Night as the preferred sectoral interlocutor in all discussions concerning Brussels clubbing.

  
  

In short, we call for recognition of nightlife's cultural, economic, touristic, and health value — in terms of well-being, inclusivity, social bonds, prevention, the attractiveness of Brussels, its tourism and local economy, innovation, and cultural diversity.

Our 50 members — clubs, bars, collectives, organizers, cultural operators — will continue to document disputes, propose solutions, work with authorities, and defend the measures already presented.

We call for immediate political dialogue. We call for decisions. We call for a vision. And we call for recognition — in practice — of the cultural value of nightlife.