Night culture exchanged for housing: “We are now looking at a place in Zaandam”

Night culture is culture that arises in the night. Culture clubs, for example, are innovative in the field of music, give artists a stage, create new subcultures and are above all not out for profit. “We make choices that give us a good story at the Christmas table,” says co-owner Joost Aartsen of art exhibition, restaurant and entertainment venue ‘Sissi’s’. Sissi’s is located in an old school building on the Amstel in East.

Temporary contracts

Like many cultural clubs, Sissi’s has a temporary contract. Aartsen and his partners can stay in place until February, “but after that we don’t know what we’re going to do yet,” says Aartsen. “We’re still looking hard.” And that search is now moving to Zaandam, Amstelveen and Diemen.

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“Many clubs have temporary permits because they settle in places that are in transition,” says acting night mayor Ramon de Lima. De Lima says that the clubs, for example, move into old buildings, which are later given a different destination. “So the problem is that once a place is developed, there is no place for the clubs in the new plans.” There are plans for a residential tower on the site of Sissi’s.

Finding a place is not impossible. For example, after years of searching, the owners of Garage Noord recently opened the new Kanaal40 on Warmoesstraat. And former director of the RoXY, Michiel Kleiss, also has a place in the center, near Rembrandtplein. But even if he has a place and the right permits, it has already taken the entrepreneur seven years to transform the ruins on Halvemaansteeg into a cultural club. This time by obnoxious neighbours. Kleiss: “We have to get the students and artists back to the city.”