"We are only remembered when we die": the alarm call of a Nice nightclub owner

"There were 6,000 of us nightclubs in France in the 1980s. There are 1,200 of us today," says Jérôme Calatraba, owner of the iconic High Club located at 45 Promenade des Anglais.

On the cusp of his company's twentieth anniversary, the man who is also head of the National Union of Nightclubs and Leisure Venues in the South region and president of the nightclub branch within the Hotel and Restaurant Owners Association wants to defend a sector that is suffering, and is too often caricatured.

"Thugs, drug or arms traffickers, even pimps. These are still stereotypes that we associate with nightclub owners," the fifty-year-old complains.

His record collection is, however, a business like any other, he proclaims from his office at the back of the company, where he sorts his files, files his emails and manages his sixty employees, many of whom are students.

"I have always made sure that my employees feel good and stay. The proof: some have come back after their studies," says the man who, from Wednesday to Saturday, welcomes a thousand people every evening.

Lack of recognition

"We are only remembered when we die," laments the former OGC Nice player, for whom a nightclub is above all a place of life and memories. He cites the "Grand Escurial" , a hotspot for Nice nights since the 1980s, which closed in 2009 after a fight involving three hundred people.

If the clubs – the last establishments to reopen after the second lockdown – are disappearing one after the other, it is also due to draconian regulations: "In France, we are subject to the Health Code. If a customer has been drinking in a restaurant before coming to my place, even if I don't serve them anything, I am responsible if they commit an offense. I am in favor of individual accountability: if you act badly, it is up to you to assume the consequences."

It has become almost impossible today, he says, to open a nightclub because banks refuse to grant loans to a sector deemed "at risk" .

The same observation is made by insurance companies, which are reluctant to cover this type of activity, forcing some operators to turn to foreign insurers.

Unfair competition

Not to mention the rise of private beach parties, "open-air discos" but with much less regulated activities, argues Jérôme Calatraba: "I accept paying more than 100,000 euros per year to Sacem, much more than establishments not registered as discos."

This competition is compounded by that of nightspots declaring a different activity to the commercial court. With a classification as a restaurant or bistro, they are exempt from stricter safety standards and higher charges.

The head of the nightlife unions is now considering calling for more controls on these establishments in order to avoid "fraudsters" .