Amsterdam Club De School Shuts Down
Leading Amsterdam nightclub De School will not reopen once pandemic restrictions lift, the club announced Tuesday (July 28). Co-founder Jochem Doornbusch said the “financial reality” of maintaining the club during lockdown threatened it with “total bankruptcy.” The bar and restaurant housed in the same venue will remain open.
The club’s statement says that, until last week, operators had hopes of “forming a new team and creating new plans.” In a podcast this month, the club had detailed measures to address alleged sexual misconduct and racial profiling by the security team, as well as failure to respond to complaints on the part of management. Doornbusch said the club stopped working with one security guard in 2016, after a queer clubber accused the guard of trying to solicit a sexual act from them, in exchange for declining to report their drug possession. Doornbusch also told Pitchfork that, in light of the allegations, the club would drop its security team altogether. De School does not cite the allegations or restructuring as a motivating factor in its closure.
Housed in a former technical school, De School opened as a multidisciplinary venue in 2016. The club achieved international acclaim after receiving a 24-hour license from the Amsterdam mayor, helping to reestablish the city as a modern nightlife hub. It was voted among the best clubs in the world in a recent DJ Mag poll. Before COVID-19 restrictions, the club was slated to remain open until 2021, with its future beyond that unclear.
Read the full statement on the closure below.
We, the owners of De School are sad to announce that the club is going to close. These last few weeks we had been working on forming a new team and creating new plans, but now we’ve been overtaken by the financial reality of the situation.
At the end of last week we received the latest monthly reports which were the first that represented the new situation since we were forced to shut the club in March. Unfortunately it is a lot worse than we expected. The bottom line is that the debts are piling up. Not only because of the uncovered staff cost, but also the other ongoing costs. Acting now and making this very difficult decision may prevent the total bankruptcy of our company Post CS (11, TROUW).
Since the club’s closure in March we did everything in our power to keep all the staff employed and paid. We were still ambitious and hopeful about the future. However, the increase of the current COVID-19 numbers and the lack of prospects have forced us to end all the club and office contracts meaning the club will stop existing. The bar, terrace and restaurant will remain open.
With pain in our hearts we had to make this decision and we would like to thank everyone who made this club into what it became.
Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
