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In a scene where clubs are closing in quick succession while others charge eye-watering prices, Macadam (Nantes) launches “Support Your Scene”: a voluntary €20 solidarity ticket to stabilise an independent artistic model without betraying its values. The club’s line is clear: preserve inclusivity and pay fairly the people who keep nightlife running, without tipping into a price spiral that fractures the dancefloor.
The context: two speeds, one shared fragility
Europe’s electronic music ecosystem sits in a paradox. On one side, venues fold because they can’t absorb rising costs (energy, artist fees, transport, supplies) and post-pandemic audience volatility. On the other, a race for high-fee headliners pushes door prices upward, creating a two-tier party economy: tariff exclusivity here, margin evaporation there. Between these extremes, the cultural promise shrinks—survival by compressing artistry and wages, or survival by social selection through pricing.
Macadam’s angle: a contribution tool, not a tollgate
“Support Your Scene” isn’t a VIP ticket or a skip-the-line pass: it’s a voluntary price that audiences able to do so can choose, alongside a standard price grid (€10 on Thursdays; €16 Fri–Sat, OHBE after included; Gloria €10 in costume / €16 without; free entry during the first 30 minutes). The aim is simple: rebuild margin where it has dissolved—without excluding anyone. From a fiscal angle, ticketing (5.5% VAT) makes each solidarity euro directly useful to organisers’ balance and to the labour chain (technicians, bar, security, artists, mediation, prevention).
Non-negotiable values, very real costs
Macadam’s rulebook is explicit: consent as a hard line, no photo/video to protect bodies and minds, active VHSS prevention and harm reduction, attention to the margins and rare aesthetics. That standard has costs: human time, training, mediators, adjustments, and fees that don’t undercut emerging artists. Paying fairly those who make the night happen remains the marker of a healthy scene; “Support Your Scene” exists precisely to keep ethics from being the first budget cut.
Finding the middle ground: against closure, against overpricing
Faced with the binary “close” or “go luxury,” Macadam embraces a deliberate middle path. By keeping a free opening window, accessible base prices, and a solidarity ticket, the club redistributes the load: those who can pull upward do so, without leaving the rest outside. The message is as political as it is economic: holding the artistic line (technical maturity, curatorial identity, European recognition) requires contribution tools, not a flat, across-the-board price hike.
A useful parallel: the Trésor West case
As analysed in our coverage of Trésor West, some actors reject the “die or premiumise” script. They experiment with contribution tiers and community-driven formats that align cultural ambition with cost reality. Macadam fits this co-financing ethos, making the community not a captive box office but a co-author of the model.
“Support Your Scene” is neither an appeal to charity nor an aesthetic retreat. It is a stabilising instrument in a jolted economy, so the party remains accessible, safe, and ambitious, and those who make it possible can make a living without the scene betraying its core DNA.