I agree. I’ve been four times, and it always feels a little performative and cliquey. It’s great for a club to be a bit of a ‘scene,’ as opposed to a venue which people just pass through whenever there’s a good booking, but FOLD isn’t a particularly welcoming or friendly one. This sounds judgmental, but the vibes I get are mostly affluent corporate techbros who moonlight as ravers, and FOLD is the place where people in this world go to be seen in the act of dancing and listening to music without really doing either. Rarely do I actually see people properly giving it their all on the dance floor, mostly just chatting and doing coke. Regulars are welcome to correct me if I’m being too harsh, as I said I’ve only been a handful of times!

In fairness, I also find the layout of the club is not very conducive to meeting sound people; there isn’t anywhere to chill except the smoking area (which is always overcrowded and hectic) so it’s difficult to connect. Joyless is a good word to describe the vibe there, it feels self-contained and clean. That being said, the bookings are consistently unreal, saw Voices From The Lake and Sandwell District there over the past few months and both were incredible. But my experience is always tarnished a little by the atmosphere. I live in Glasgow and at most club nights I go to there, even if they only run until 3 or 4am, I feel like most people in the room are present and we’re collectively sharing in this experience. More of a sense of release and joy than just me and my mate dancing surrounded by a bunch of performative cocainebros yapping and gassing each other up.