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New Year’s Eve revelers welcoming 2025 in a 35-hour event will be the last to grace the dance floor of the Watergate club, an iconic Berlin venue that has become the latest victim of death of the club – death of the club.

“The days when Berlin was flooded with club-loving visitors are over,” the venue’s management said in a farewell statement. The Watergate co-owner blamed cost pressures, declining tourism, declining enthusiasm from Generation Z and the rise of music festivals for its closure.

The pressures that led to the death of Watergate are behind a trend that has changed the nightlife capitals from Berlin to Barcelona and Melbourne to New York: despite the rising popularity of dance music , clubbers end their nights early.

The proportion of club nights running past 3am fell in 12 out of 15 cities in the world between 2014 and 2024, according to a Financial Times analysis of events on the Resident Advisor list website.

“People can only go out for hours,” says Lutz Leichsenring, co-founder of international nightlife consultancy VibeLab. “There is a lot of competition between night and day events.”

Leichsenring said bar owners often close their doors early to cut costs, as revenue from liquor sales tends to drop in the morning hours.

More strict licensing rules after Covid-19 has also become an issue for clubs and promoters in cities around the world. While cities have appointed nighttime mayors and adopted “24-hour city” policies in recent years, increased oversight of the nighttime economy since the pandemic has resulted in stricter restrictions. night establishment policy, added Leichsenring.

The growing popularity of daytime events and festivals is another factor. Mike Vosters, whose company Matinee Social Club organizes late-night parties in New York, said that while the 5-10pm events were originally intended for millennials who no longer wanted to party at small hours, they received “a ton of interest” from partygoers in their 20s.

According to Vosters, a shift away from the “bottle service” club culture and a new cross-generational emphasis on healthy living are two of the main drivers behind the surge in enthusiasm. for dance parties that end early.

Resident Advisor data shows an increase in daytime parties, with many major cities showing an increase in events ending at 10pm.

Melbourne claims to be the live music capital of the world and 20 years ago boasted a lively nightclub scene. However, the sector is in serious decline in the city because consumer behavior has changed and the cost of running activities, especially after the pandemic.

One entertainment industry executive says young people are less inclined to go out until 6 a.m. because they are more health conscious and less frivolous about money than previous generations. This is reflected in nightclub closures in Melbourne – with more than 100 closing in recent years – and fewer clubs staying open all night.

In Dublin, campaigners are fighting to change strict licensing laws that require clubs to pay €410 a night to stay open between 12.30am and 2.30am.

Sunil Sharpe, a DJ and co-founder of Give Us the Night, said the stalling of a proposed law that would have extended closing hours to 6am had left the industry in limbo, with operators nervous to invest. in new places.

He estimates there are about 20 to 25 clubs left in the city and its suburbs, home to 1.3 million people. “It is very rude to open a venue now . . . or even open your doors for an individual evening,” he added.

But there are signs of hope for dance music. A study released at the International Music Summit, an annual conference held in Ibiza, found that the electronic music industry will grow by 17 percent by 2023, reaching an annual revenue of $11.8bn.

Across the 15 cities the FT analyzed using Resident Advisor event data, areas listing more than five events increased by 60 percent by 2024 compared to a decade ago. More than 35,000 artists have been booked to play in the cities since 2014 – up 90 per cent over the same period.

“People still crave community. People still want to go out,” Vosters said. “That hasn’t diminished and music is still the best way to do that.”