TD 1
Pop Dungeon “I see our job as night-time gardener
s, we lay the seed bed. It is not up to us to design what creativity goes into these spaces but we have to make sure those environments are available for creatives to come into and flourish and grow.” SS: “We talked about this the other day at the Arts SPC (Strategic Policy Committee) and I described myself as being a raver at heart. Being a raver will never change. From my perspective and anyone involved in the campaign, I am the oldest involved, but one thing I’ve always done is stay young-minded. That is something people who work in local authorities need to ask themselves about - I mean many of them have kids who also go out and socialise in the city. I wonder how much they consider and analyse and think about how much they are giving back? “There are a number of cultural shifts we are going to have to go through. I think there’s a general mindset when it comes to night-life that it is a trivial matter and almost belittled. For a lot of us it is the industry we work in. I saw one particular official who was cutting ribbons in a new tech company’s building that was not so long ago our last hope as a night-club in the city. That kind of stuff infuriates me and shows how distant and isolated in their thinking a lot of the officials and people who essentially run Dublin are. “We have spoken about multi-purpose venues and a great example of the opposite of that right now in the city is the docklands and the amount of office buildings down there. Those are ghost towns at night and what they have given back to local communities is literally zilch. One of things we will be pushing for is the culture department to be more involved when the leases are being renegotiated on some of these buildings because there has to be more access to space for the public and organisers and not just the big few promoters.” Small Crab B2B EMA (Skin and Blister) CB: “For many years there was an absence of any policy framework at local level. I have dedicated a lot of my time trying to weave and stitch changes through Strategic Policy Committees and through the devel27 it genuinely saves lives. We are fortunate to have a harm reduction strategy in Bristol City Council. We have a fairly progressive police force. I’m a huge advocate for harm reduction, we can be part of the solution and solve these problems collectively and responsibly.” MMD: “From what you’ve heard about Dublin so far and where we’re at, are you aghast, basically?” CH: “I’m actually really shocked to find out that it is so restrictive here. When you lose this energy and culture, it’s really hard to get it back. You have to protect these spaces at all costs. I see our job as nighttime gardeners, we lay the seed bed. It is not up to us to design what creativity goes into these spaces but we have to make sure those environments are available for creatives to come into and flourish and grow. When we say culture, whose culture? Who gets to decide what culture is? Culture is ordinary, culture is everyday, it belongs to the people and we should create an environment where people can live their lives and be their fuller selves.” MMD: “It feels like it is no city for young people now with a generation isolated, left behind, priced out of it with nothing to go to.”