A history student who goes dancing on Fridays reads the latest figures on late-night venues and tries not to make a dramatic exit
455 Nightclubs Gone Since March 2020: The NTIA Says the Sector Has Shrunk by 36.5 Percent, and I Count My Wristbands
A history student who goes dancing on Fridays reads the latest figures on late-night venues and tries not to make a dramatic exit
By Camden Rose, history student and kite flyer
Saturday, 3am, Night Bus Upstairs
Dear diary, I am twenty-two, I study history, I fly kites in daylight and dance in the dark, and I have just read a number that stopped me in the queue for chips. Vinetur reported on 17 October 2026 that 455 nightclubs have closed since March 2020, a contraction of 36.5 percent in the sector, based on a report released the previous Friday.
I will give the other figures carefully. The article is an aggregator’s report of the industry’s own numbers, and I mark it as secondary.
The Figures
The article says late-night venues, meaning nightclubs, late-night bars and casinos, fell 28.7 percent from March 2020 to June 2026, with 867 fewer venues. Across total hospitality over the same period the decline was 14.4 percent, so late-night venues shrank at nearly twice the wider market’s pace.
The wider night-time economy, including pubs, restaurants, theatres and cinemas, lost a net 14,332 outlets since March 2020, the article says. It adds that 374 closed in the first six months of 2026, but only 13 of those were late-night venues.
The Pattern
That last pair of numbers is interesting. The article presents the loss of late-night venues in early 2026 as small, 13, compared with 374 across the wider night-time economy. This suggests that the worst of the club closures may have come earlier, though I have no data to say so and the article does not say so either.
A historian learns to distrust a pleasing trend line. I note the numbers and I wait.
The Man at the NTIA
Michael Kill, the chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, is reported as saying the closures should be a warning to ministers, that late-night venues are disappearing at almost twice the market rate, and that more than one in four late-night venues and more than one in three nightclubs have been lost since 2020. The article paraphrases rather than quotes him. His closing message, in the article’s words, is to “stop leaving nightclubs behind.”
I cannot verify what he said beyond the article. I give it as reported.
My Friday Nights
I go dancing in a club with a sticky floor and a lift that is always broken. I know the bouncer’s name. I know the cloakroom attendant’s cat’s name. I do not know the owner, but I assume he has a face like a man doing sums.
If it closes, I will be sad in the way one is sad about a bus route. It is not a monument. It is a place where I have been happy on a Friday.
A Historian’s Remark
Dancing is one of the oldest social habits of the species, and the places where it happens have always been fragile. Ballrooms, assembly rooms, dance halls and discos have all come and gone. I say that as a general remark, with no source, and I do not mean to suggest that clubs are doomed. I mean only that a historian is not shocked by closure.
I am, however, a person with a wristband collection.
What I Will Do
I will keep going. I will buy a drink at the bar and not at the corner shop. I will tip the cloakroom. I will tell my friends that a night out is also a form of voting. This is not very sophisticated economics, and I have no evidence that it works, but it feels right.
The article suggests more formal remedies, which I cover in the next entry.
Sunday
The wristbands are in a jar. The jar is on the shelf. The kite bag is by the door.
Goodnight, diary. Keep the music on.
Questions From the Queue
Friend one: how many clubs were there before 2020? The article gives 455 closed as a 36.5 percent contraction, which implies roughly 1,250, but that is my arithmetic and the article does not state the starting number. Friend two: is ours safe? I do not know. Friend three: are chips included? I said the chips are always included.
Cloakroom Ticket
On the night bus home I read the comic papers, because the kite bag is on my lap and my hands are free. This week the big joke was property: Manila News on slow condo sales in Cebu, the London Prat on retirees asked for character references (it is at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney on a realtor with unsellable beachfront listings. Exaggeration all the way down, but anchored to a real market story. More at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try The Daily Mash, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/