Dubstep Fans Are Going Mad at the £30 Tickets for Cult Clubnight DMZ, But Where’s the Faith?

For the dubstep contingent, the 10th anniversary party of cult clubnight DMZ was always going to cause a stir. As soon as the news trickled onto social networks and filled gaps in content-coffins on dance sites worldwide, we began imagining an inclusive roadblock, the kind of party that blends hedonism and reflection, the dewy eyes of sentimentality with the wide-open ones of nights spent nefariously. Then it emerged that tickets would cost around £30, and the internet got angry.

"Gone are the days it was £8"

"£30?!! You must be having a fucking laugh!!"

"THIRTY BONES. R U MAD. BETTER BE A RAVE ON THE FUCKING MOON WITH A FUNCTIONING SPACE STATION MADE OF PURELY PLATINUM RC1 STACKS, MALA SERVING COMPLIMENTARY DON PERIGNON UPON ENTRY BEFORE WARMING UP FOR THE REANIMATED CORPSE OF BOB MARLEY PLAYING UNRELEASED TOASTY DUBS. AND THEN MAN STILL BETTER PAY FOR THE MINICAB HOME…j/k, bought two tickets already."

This was the chorus on Facebook, and the threads go on and on, across various social platforms. The debate is pretty clear cut. One half are defending DMZ as an institution capable of the greatest dubstep parties on Planet Earth, arguing that £30 is nothing compared to what they've given to the scene. The other half see the price as an ugly sign of the times, an undoable shift from the days when dubstep was too secret to be expensive. Nostalgists feel betrayed by the ideal that the nights they once scraped together a fiver for are now taking a hefty chunk out of their weekly budget. As one ticket buyer on Facebook expressed, "I expected something a lot different as did anyone else who knows what DMZ's founding ideas were."

It's fair to say that £30 is an odd sum to deal with. Most us aren't exactly lounging on a lilo of disposable income, so it seems damn steep, especially for a night that's always prided itself on communality and coming together to meditate on bass weight. But a look at some other nights quickly highlights that it isn't exactly an anomaly. Skream's recent residency at XOYO worked out at around £15 a night, with booking fees. Circus Records takeover at Ministry of Sound is £22, and Artwork's incoming night at the Nest in Dalston is priced between £10 and £15. Yeah, maybe we're in an age where we need to check ourselves before we even buy a bag of Hula-Hoops, but realistically: an extra ten quid for a night that will 100% blow the others mentioned out of the water, that will run for ten hours and have a tonne of names that usually cost £10/ticket alone - that isn't so bad.

. @coki_dmz @loefah @Sarge_Pokes #brixton #dmz10 pic.twitter.com/D6v2OYx0eN
— mala_dmz (@mala_dmz) April 17, 2015

DMZ haven't announced a full line up yet, but it looks set to consolidate their biggest associated names. Co-founder Mala's announcement on Twitter has kept the hype vague, tagging his label-mates Coki, Loefah and Sgt. Pokes with the poster. Whatever's being planned, rumours suggest it will be massive. After all, this is DMZ! This is the night that saw such a massive crowd attend their first anniversary that they were forced to vacate normal home 3rd Base for bigger ends. They know how to throw a party, and they know how important the community they're throwing it for are.

This isn't about DMZ trying to con their following – this is the world of underground dance music in 2015. This is the coalface of the economic and political climate pushing London night-life to extinction. The truth is, that sort of cost is the only way a mega event, on the scale DMZ want to pull off, can legitimately exist.

Maybe this is the apocalyptic sign that some people think it is. Perhaps this is the hipsterfication of dubstep and from here on in DMZ are going to be hosting their events in the Barbican. Or, maybe, this is just a business trying their best to throw a party they feel their followers deserve, while trying to balance books against London's apparent war on night-life.

Yes, the night might be ten pounds more than people were expecting, but ultimately, for a fan-base as devoted to DMZ and dubstep as they claim, they are showing a serious lack of faith. As Sgt. Poke tweeted when the controversy broke: "When the lineup drops. Trust me."

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