"No sector of activity has suffered what we have experienced": weakened nightclubs in the midst of an existential crisis

"In the 80s, all you needed was a building with the word discotheque on it, and there would be a queue . Today, we're a business like any other, we have to constantly reinvent ourselves," sighs Matthieu Lebrun. The owner of the nightclub Le Milton, in Saint-Lô (Manche), remembers with nostalgia the days of wild evenings, in these temples of partying that dotted France. A golden age that is now over, while the night has changed its face .

The days of huge clubs welcoming entire crowds grooving to Wham, Sheila, or Abba now seem distant. In just a few decades, the nightclub landscape has been transformed: France now has 1,600 establishments, according to the Union of Hotel Trades and Industries (UMIH), compared to 4,000 recorded in the 2010s by Sacem. The latest example, in February 2025, the last Macumba in France, a classic of the old-school establishments with its 1,500 square meters of dance floor, closed its doors.