Towards the end of summer, a debate began raging in clubland, kick-started by an Instagram post from the esteemed DJ Jane Fitz. Ahead of the Houghton festival, where she is a regular fixture, she posted a request asking people to stop chatting so much during DJ sets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I wrote was super respectful,\u201d she tells me. \u201cA bit of talking is obviously OK. But why would you stand completely still, where the sound is super loud, just to ask your mate about a new boyfriend or what they had for lunch? It\u2019s called a dancefloor for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jane Fitz at Rural in 2025. Photograph: Toshimura<\/p>\n
Fitz\u2019s plea exploded. It chimed with many, while others were up in arms, claiming that paying an entry fee allowed them to do whatever they wanted. \u201cPeople were accusing me of being the fun police,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to stop your fun, mate. I\u2019m trying to give you a better night out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the dancefloor is dead,\u201d Charli xcx sang on her tongue-in-cheek comeback single Rock Music this spring. Was she right? Many DJs and clubbers are worried it goes further than the yappers Fitz complained about, citing the rise of certain drugs \u2013 insular ketamine, chew-your-ear-off cocaine \u2013 and TikTok-boosted star DJs bringing in passive fans used to consuming dance music through a screen, who end up standing still filming the DJ and their visuals. Then there is the rising cost of clubbing, prohibiting younger, potentially bouncier dancers from attending raves.<\/p>\n
As fewer purpose-made clubs have been built in recent years, clubbers have got used to squeezing into one-room raves often in converted arches, warehouses and garages. Josh Aitman, an organiser of the sober-friendly London queer party Good As You, complains that \u201csome parties can be so packed in that I get looks just for dancing\u201d. Separate bar areas are scarce and the 90s concept of a dedicated chill-out room is long gone, so the smoking area<\/a> is often the only safe \u2013 if smelly \u2013 bet for a chat away from the music.<\/p>\n Paul M\u2019s \u201cThe dancefloor is for dancing\u201d card and reasons for it on the reverse. <\/p>\n While the audiophilia boom has improved sound quality in many clubs, stricter council licensing demands often result in quieter dancefloors, making chat more liable to cut through and annoy other punters. One diehard group of clubbers detailed the science on cards they handed out this summer on dancefloors including at Houghton. One side read: \u201cThe Dance Floor Is For Dancing\u201d with \u201cPlease take your conversation to the back\u201d written underneath. The flipside featured a diagram of EQ curves. \u201cDance music is very bassy, meaning there\u2019s loads of room on the top end of the EQ spectrum for vocals to punctuate,\u201d says Paul M, one of the instigators of the cards.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sadistic side of me wishes I could just turn the music off for 10 minutes and give these people a lecture on all this so they understand,\u201d says Paul. \u201cThe cards were a jokey way of doing that \u2013 but it\u2019s no joke. I was watching a DJ I\u2019d wanted to see for ages and two men next to me were having a 20-minute discussion about mortgage rates.\u201d Astonishingly, this group of dancefloor activists wasn\u2019t alone \u2013 someone else at Houghton gave out cards that just said: \u201cStop Talking.\u201d<\/p>\n Not everyone in clubland wants the dancefloor to be treated as a sacred space. James Ronald, who plays as Hot Cross Fun and is a resident DJ for the nomadic party Disco Disco, posted a heartfelt rebuttal to Fitz\u2019s post titled: \u201cPlease Talk on the Dancefloor.\u201d It garnered a similarly huge reaction. \u201cI get that you should be respectful,\u201d says Ronald. \u201cBut she talked about treating it like a church, cinema or a theatre \u2013 places where you just observe and nobody communicates.\u201d<\/p>\n A sign at Gaffe in London tells clubbers to keep chat off the dancefloor.<\/p>\n Ronald tapped into an important reason why club culture is such a powerful force: the dancefloor is a place for people to connect. \u201cCommunity is a really big part of clubbing,\u201d he says. He defends the right for clubbers to get deep. \u201cThere\u2019s been instances with a particular friend, for example, who only really opens up when he\u2019s a bit wasted. We\u2019ve had important chats about family and personal issues, chats we wouldn\u2019t have had anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n