ADE and VibeLab launch an index to measure nightlife beyond money
The Nighttime Culture Index debuts at ADE Pro during the 30th edition, measuring nighttime culture in six cities on safety, space, diversity and more.
Amsterdam Dance Event and VibeLab are launching the Nighttime Culture Index at ADE Pro during ADE’s 30th anniversary edition, with a first round covering six cities. The Index is a public measure of nighttime cultural vitality, asking whether a city’s nightlife is diverse, livable, supported, safe, sustainable and creatively active.
The cities are Amsterdam, Lagos, New York, São Paulo, Seoul and Sydney, one for each of six continents. Danny Houtkamp, ADE’s Head of Brand Strategy, laid out the thinking in an interview with Magnetic Magazine. Nightlife policy has long been viewed through an economic lens, he said. “Measuring the flow of economics is straightforward, but measuring cultural impact is so nuanced and complicated.”
The research is organized around six dimensions of cultural vitality:
- Diversity & Representation
- Creative Ecology
- Space & Infrastructure
- Community & Belonging
- Policy & Civic Health
- Sustainability & Environment
The framework is meant to reach past licensed venues, ticketed events and established institutions. Its questions include how easy it is for an experimental, unlicensed collective to find a stage, how safe people feel gathering after midnight, and whether young talent has places to experiment. The indicators are qualitative, and not all of them can be captured through established channels. Some of the regions covered also have institutions that are not developed the same way as in ADE’s commercial markets.
Houtkamp credits commercial scale with paying higher artist fees, financing ambitious productions and giving sounds that began in the underground a global stage. But without reinvestment in grassroots communities, physical spaces and talent development, “the rich culture eventually runs dry.” In his words, “there is no sustainable music business without it.”
Asked whether ADE has misjudged the balance between industry growth and local scenes, Houtkamp said the event began as a conference on the edge between business and culture, so that tension is part of its identity. Balancing local scenes against large-scale events, after periods of very rapid growth and interest from major promoters, will remain “a learning process.”
Nigeria and Brazil are in the first edition because of ADE’s expanding cultural exchange programs with those developing music markets. Houtkamp said the aim is to learn what exchanging knowledge, talent and culture could mean for mutual development.
The Index launches in October. ADE hopes to expand it each coming year, with the goal of bringing “a standardized, public measure of cultural vitality to the table, to show and understand the value of the night.”
