Dancing in Dalston
Most of us know about Shoreditch right? Well if you do, we know that it’s an incredibly trendy part of London that caters to those with beards and leather jackets. Alright, that may have been a little stereotypical; no offense if you have any of these things, I dig beards and own a sweet leather jackets myself. Nevertheless Shoreditch is an alternative town for people who aren’t the biggest fan of ‘showy’ London city clubs and bars.
Moving on to what I’m actually here to talk about, Dalston. It’s more or less the 2.0 of Shoreditch. A town filled with bars, clubs, and a tonne of quirky places to eat, you’re never short of anywhere to go. I’ll be talking about just some of my personal party favourites in Dalston.
The Nest is an intimate 350 capacity basement venue on Stoke Newington Road. Don’t be fooled by the size of this place as it’s usually jam packed, so you’d have to get down early to secure your dance spot. Despite the basement setting, the venue has an industrialised chicness to it, with cute table booths, brick walls, and a simple dancefloor space. The Nest opened in 2010 with intentions to create a cool clubbing space with awesome lighting and sound. Check their website or facebook to know about upcoming events; they love promoting new talent, as well as guest DJ’s. Watch out for Friendly Fires DJ Set on the 4th of December and Artful Dodger who will be down on the 19th! Regular nights include Your Mum’s House, this particular night involves hip hop, R&B, trap, and a couple of old skool bangers. This is personally one of my favourite consistent club nights in London; it takes place every Thursday and my only advice is prepare to get sweaty.
Literally a minute walk from Dalston Overground Station is Visions Video Bar, an infamous Dalston favourite that has been around for almost 25 years. It dedicated itself to becoming a full nightclub in 2009 and has been going strong ever since. Like The Nest, and many other clubs in Dalston, Visions is a basement club. Again it’s intimate and hella hot, so you better put that coat in the cloakroom. The walls are lined with VHS boxes displaying cool visuals and music vids, homage to the name video bar. Visions host parties from Thursday to Sunday, playing Grime, Hip Hop, old skool, dancehall, techno, and house with a bass that will get the whole club going crazy. With a licence till 6am, this is definitely for those who love to party hard.
Located on the main strip of Dalston is Birthdays; an independent bar and venue with two floors. The upper floor is the main bar and seating area where you can also order food by Lucky Chip, and downstairs is the performance venue. Entry is free for the bar, although the basement will sometimes cost you, but they do their best to keep it cheap! Birthdays have hosted parties by VICE, Trangressive, NTS Radio and many others. They have also had performances from the likes of JME, Bloc Party, Deafheaven, Yung Lean and a tonne more. Definitely check this place out and head to their social media to find out what’s on.
By Cherise Chana