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Just two weeks after we named it one of the greatest independent music venues in the nation, the White Hotel, aka the Salford Berghain, has announced that it’s closing down.
Co-founders Austin Collings and Ben Ward broke the news in an interview in the Guardian on May 27. They confirmed that flooding issues and redevelopment pressures have given them no other choice and the White Hotel will officially shutter in January 2027. ‘Basically, it’s a swamp,’ Ward told the paper. The pair agreed that it will be better to ‘to go out on our own terms, long before we became a museum’.
Hidden in a fairly decrepit looking industrial space on the outskirts of town, The White Hotel has been a beacon of the UK’s underground scene for the last decade. But it was never actually meant to last that long. When they opened the club in 2015, Collings and Ward intended to only keep it open for a year before relocating to LA for a while then settling in Sarajevo. However, the venue’s almost immediate success convinced them to stay put.
With its raw atmosphere, groundshaking sound system and boundary-pushing DIY programming, The White Hotel became one of Europe’s most renowned electronic music destinations. It built a reputation has a talent incubator, giving a leg-up to the likes of Space Afrika, Rainy Miller, Blackhaine, Conor Thomas, Bitzer Maloney and Iceboy Violet.
When we asked Murkage Dave about The White Hotel for our indie venues guide, he said: ‘A sound guy who used to work there recently described it to me as like being part of a family, or a cult. I did my last ever Murkage club night there, a few months before my music properly kicked off, and fans still bring it up to me to this day.’
Once gone, the venue will be replaced by a wetlands park. But there’s a good while to go before that happens and there’s plenty of time for you to go and say your final farewell. There are plenty of artists lined up to play the venue before it closes, including Zenker Brothers, re:ni, Mama Snake and Galcher Lustwerk. And in June The White Hotel team will be hosting their very first festival The Black Lights, which will take over venues across Blackpool. See all of the White Hotel’s upcoming events here.
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