Fabric permanently ban person for filming another clubber

The nightclub is a sacred space for those who attend – one of reckless abandon and ditched inhibitions. So when the Twitter user @Doddsyy97 posted a video from London’s Fabric nightclub mocking a man letting loose on the dancefloor, the reaction from both the club community and wider public was swift and decisive.

In the video, tweeted from Doddsy’s now-private account, we see a club-goer dancing in some white and gold briefs, posted alongside the caption “Yo I’ll never be going to fabric again after seeing this.” Doddsy had clearly posted the video in an attempt to harness a chorus of abuse, of which he partly succeeded. Dark Fruits Twitter were up in arms, branding the man a “creature”, “perv” and “predator” for the simple crime of dancing slightly provocatively in a nightclub. God forbid.

A day after the video had been posted, Fabric’s main Twitter account released a statement confirming that they had seen the video, requested for it to be taken down, and that the author had been given a lifetime ban from their nightclub. Looks like Doddsy’s wish of never going back to Fabric again had been granted – good for him!!

The nightclub then cited their ‘No Photo Policy’ as a reason for the ban, adding that “everyone should be able to express themselves freely at Fabric”.

Many who were disappointed by the rhetoric used against the man in the video lauded Fabric’s response, sparking a wider conversation about the changing face of London's nightlife and its new set of patrons.

And those within the club music community also had a lot to say. Amy Fielding, fashion editor at DJ magazine, was quick to defend the sartorial choices of Doddsy’s target, while The Blessed Madonna expressed her disdain for the tone of the current conversation, and the increasingly hostile language used against those who don’t conform.

Although a large cross-section of people showed out for Fabric’s lycra-clad dancer, the initial support for the video was what sparked the most conversation. Historically, nightclubs have been spaces that have fought against censorship and surveillance – especially Fabric – so to see this kind of cop mentality inside these spaces feels worryingly regressive.

In particular, the situation has exposed a disconnect with people like Doddsy, those who frequent nightclubs regularly, who may or may not take illicit substances – those who you’d expect to be of a liberal mindset. But it’s these very same people that are spearheading a kind of new puritanism, utilising the most demeaning forms of surveillance in the process. We’ve known about these nu-lads for a while, but seeing it happen so flagrantly on the timeline has stirred emotion in a lot of people.

Ironically, it’s the nightlife community’s ethos of inclusion and acceptance that has allowed these people to infiltrate previously gate-kept scenes in a way they haven’t been able to do before. Now, our only hope is that the Doddsies of the world will take this fallout as a lesson, and stop to consider the founding principles of the spaces they are so brazenly entering into.