Moving Out: Award-Winning Club The House Closes

Despite bagging a haul of prizes from both the Beijinger (including "Best Place for Dancing" and "Outstanding New Bar/Club") and City Weekend awards in the past two weeks, electronic music venue The House has closed. Permanently. The venue held its last party on Sunday night, going out quietly and without a public announcement of the kind that drew massive crowds to say farewell to Lantern last year. The decision to close appears purely a business one. While massively popular among clubbers, the club simply wasn’t making enough profit to stay open.

The news comes just six months after a major relaunch set The House up as the club that would take Beijing’s electronic scene to new heights – to get a sense of the excitement The House generated at the end of 2010, check out what we said, as well as what City Weekend had to say. The ambitious collaboration between Gongti powerhouse Mix and local techno stars Acupuncture Records hasn’t worked out as many hoped it would, but Acupuncture refer to the parting of ways as “a friendly breakup.” The House space has apparently already been rented out to Lotus, to be used as a car showroom. Culture makes way for commerce yet again; no doubt Lotus will be a good, reliable earner for the landlords.

Beijing DJs and promoters are more than used to blows like this, so let's not talk of a crisis facing electronic music in Beijing. Acupuncture will no doubt pick themselves up and move on – they’ve been here before, after all – and Mix still has Mix. However, as many pointed out in late 2010, The House was in many ways better equipped than predecessors like White Rabbit and Lantern to push the Beijing dance scene forward. Something new will come along soon enough to excite us and maybe, just maybe, succeed where The House didn't. Right now though, you can’t help but feel a sense of an opportunity lost.

Image: Resident Advisor