![\"Cassandra](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/055c3fcc2ff9c372698d8bffaa46e198063e316a.png\")
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October 23, 2026 \u2014 7:00pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n No gift articles left<\/p>\n You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n Close<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n In a city of cobbled streets, cafe culture and cyclists, Mirik Milan had a radical idea. Critics hated it.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are going to die here,\u201d they told him. Blood will be spilled on the streets of Amsterdam, they said, of this plan for a 24-hour city (and liquor licences). But the city\u2019s night mayor pushed on.<\/p>\n \u201cThe night has been demonised [since the year] 2000, or maybe even longer, for some folks\u2019 advantage \u2013 to either stay in power, to not let certain ideas surface,\u201d Milan told the Cities After Dark<\/a> summit in Melbourne\u2019s west.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s also a cultural battle in terms of, if we let all these ideas and things flow out, they\u2019re losing control over the narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n People argue that \u201cnothing good ever happens after midnight\u201d, Milan said. He says they\u2019re wrong.<\/p>\n The nighttime economy is cyclical. Every few years, a new group of young people ages into it. Some ultimately bow out. Others stick with it.<\/p>\n Milan \u2013 a charismatic and stylish forty-something \u2013 is a lifer.<\/p>\n Where bureaucrats are clueless, jaded by their last experiences in nightlife from their university days (and thinking it synonymous with alcohol abuse), the former club promoter recognised nighttime culture\u2019s untapped potential when he was elected as Amsterdam\u2019s inaugural night mayor in 2012. <\/p>\n \u201cMany people that make decisions for our cities, or also at a national level, they might not have experienced nightlife or nighttime culture the way I\u2019ve been doing in recent years,\u201d Milan said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are still a very niche part of society.\u201d <\/p>\n Milan saw people staying out later and going to more shows, people dancing at festivals well into their 50s, and communities forming in warehouses pulsing with electronic music.<\/p>\n Related Article He also saw problems. Among them, the tide of people pouring onto the city\u2019s narrow streets at 3am and 4am when most venues closed.<\/p>\n If venues had capacity for, say, 1000 people, neighbourhoods would be overrun with crowds the equivalent of \u201ca demonstration\u201d in the early morning. \u201cYou can\u2019t even control those in public space, let alone late at night,\u201d Milan told this masthead.<\/p>\n People were moving off into illegal venues after the house lights came on, and businesses closed. And, at a macro level, Amsterdam was losing artists, musicians and designers to creative capital Berlin.<\/p>\n A way to retain them, Milan decided, would be through 24-hour licences in up-and-coming neighbourhoods on the city\u2019s outskirts (within a 20-minute bike ride). In a first, the local government would offer the licences through a tender process.<\/p>\n Related \u201cWhen you\u2019re developing your nighttime economy, you need to really start changing the rules of the game, and that sometimes means that maybe it\u2019s not a level playing field,\u201d Milan said.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, we also got a lot of pushback from entrepreneurs or from venue owners [in the inner city] because we had looked at designated areas \u2026 only on the outskirts.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we really developed a vision.\u201d<\/p>\n Each of the venues have to be \u201cmultidisciplinary\u201d \u2013 with mixed functionality from nightclubs to bars, galleries and co-working spaces. Some of the venues even have daycare facilities (not for people partying, but as an added benefit for the community, Milan stressed).<\/p>\n Venues don\u2019t have to be open 24\/7, but they have the freedom to open and close whenever they like. The licence is attached to the venue operator, rather than the building, and can be revoked at any time.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are now 15 of these venues in the outskirts of the city, [which] really [helps] to develop those areas into cultural hotspots,\u201d Milan said.<\/p>\n The process allowed for a kind of cultural audit or \u201cprogramming\u201d of Amsterdam, whereby officials fielding proposals could see whether a neighbourhood could expect gaps in small, mid-tier<\/a> or large venues, Milan said.<\/p>\n Related Article It also has economic benefits, with every euro invested in nocturnal creative industries yielding up to \u20ac11 in return, according to Milan\u2019s research and advocacy agency Vibelab<\/a>.<\/p>\n More than 4.1 million Australians<\/a> \u2013 or almost 30 per cent of the workforce \u2013 regularly work at night, according to University of Melbourne urban studies researcher Anna Edwards, who also spoke at the summit.<\/p>\n Australians are going out an average of 80 nights a year in 2026, or 15 per cent more often than last year, according to Visa research.<\/a> The payment company ranks Melbourne as the country\u2019s top nighttime economy when factoring in spending, governance, safety, vibrancy and accessibility.<\/p>\n Melbourne doesn\u2019t have dedicated 24-hour liquor licences, and the state government has no intention of bringing them in. Venues have to apply for late-night liquor licences<\/a> if they want to serve alcohol beyond 1am \u2013 and few venues (including the CBD\u2019s Colonial Hotel and Captain Melville) have bumped this out to be around the clock on most days.<\/p>\n Should Labor be re-elected next month, licensing for pubs would automatically be extended to 3am, a state government spokesman said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe back venues to do what they do best to create the shared experiences that connect us, support local jobs, and keep Victoria\u2019s live music scene Australia\u2019s number one,\u201d the government spokesman said.<\/p>\n The commitment is among a package of reforms and grants<\/a> Labor announced last month, while the Victorian opposition has also promised \u201ca new dedicated focus on the nighttime economy\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll cut red tape, fast-track permits, and standardise council laws so businesses can operate reliably across different areas,\u201d Deputy Opposition Leader David Southwick said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re building an economy that works around the clock.\u201d<\/p>\n A separate safety initiative in the central nightlife district of Rembrandtplein in Amsterdam had reduced alcohol-related violence by 20 per cent, and public nuisance by 30 per cent, Milan said.<\/p>\n As part of the initiative, a team of people dressed in bright red jackets (called \u201csquare hosts\u201d)<\/a> patrol the square on Friday and Saturday nights, acting as intermediaries between patrons, police and venues, helping people get around, and de-escalating situations when required.<\/p>\n Maribyrnong City Council is deploying a similar model in Footscray, with a trained two-person \u201cwelcome crew\u201d working business hours (and between 11am and 7pm from Thursday to Saturday) to listen to feedback, support traders and locals, and better co-ordinate council services.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The council\u2019s Cities After Dark summit made the case for its Creative West<\/a> precinct \u2013 which Maribyrnong Mayor Mohamed Semra described as \u201cthe solution\u201d for the west.<\/p>\n The project \u2013 comprising a park, library and 500-seat theatre \u2013 would be a source of pride for the entire region, Semra said. His council is seeking $50 million each from both the Victorian and federal governments to help fund the $148 million project, with a view to beginning construction in early 2027.<\/p>\n \u201cOur creatives have hustled, making extraordinary things happen with whatever resources they had, but creativity alone cannot compensate for a lack of cultural infrastructure,\u201d Semra told the summit.<\/p>\n Milan draws parallels between government approaches in Footscray and Amsterdam. \u201cThere\u2019s this huge development going into Footscray \u2013 100 per cent, it will be successful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n However, a bigger question remains.<\/p>\n \u201cHow are we protecting, in the long run, small businesses that will be here, through rent control or through also these creative spaces?\u201d Milan said.<\/p>\n In European cities including Berlin and Amsterdam, nightclubs are gaining status as cultural institutions, he said. The government is recognising their contributions with tax cuts and legacy policy to protect venues and, ultimately, to make them a \u201cfundamental part\u201d of civil infrastructure.<\/p>\n Summits like the one in Footscray were an important step forward, Milan said.<\/p>\n However, he said: \u201cWe still need to pull the nighttime culture out of the space of mischief and mayhem, because it\u2019s so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Mirik](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/fb7eb02401108047d1596584de3d57562b41b0f0.jpeg\")
Mirik Milan, VibeLab co-founder and Amsterdam\u2019s former night mayor.Jason South<\/p>\n![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6e2feee413bd4aa3805901bfdc14680f05f94dba047b4ecd46bcc7bf71c76f46.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Supernormal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/7494fa3cd834bac1aaf1141649f6197e37ca7a4f.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Rod](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/aae48e29a0f584d0c16e9f0298ca0fa03428e5fa.jpeg\")
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