In a recent social media post, Dublin club night for queer men Sweatbox announced that its host venue, The Well, has closed permanently. The announcement follows a series of closures of other nightlife spaces in the Irish capital, which have been impacted by the rising cost of living and renting of spaces.

Situated next to Stephen’s Green Park, The Well was a bar, restaurant and event space that had been one of the staples in Dublin’s nightlife scene since 2019. In the last few months, the venue had been the third home of queer club night Sweatbox, providing incredible parties full of dancing and fun to the community.

The team at Sweatbox confirmed The Well’s closure in an Instagram post published on Saturday, July 13, where they also communicated that the event won’t be able to take place for a few months. “It’s with a heavy heart we share the news that The Well has closed permanently. Another Dublin dancefloor bites the dust,” they wrote.

“So, we find ourselves without a home. Again. We’ll be going dark until we find our next rave palace,” the post continued. “Thank you to all at The Well for the joyous commitment to our night. We will dance again.”

 

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An updated version of The Well’s website now includes a statement about the closure that reads, “Our Time Has Come. When we started The Well we got the opportunity to turn our pop up into a longer term reality. We were only supposed to be here a short time and we got much longer with you all than we expected.”

“Thank you very much to everyone who joined us and ate, drank and danced,” the statement continues. “Thank you to our amazing staff who worked so hard to ensure you all had the best time possible.”

Sweatbox’s social media post has been flooded with messages of support from the community mourning the closure of their latest venue. “So sad to read this, but you will rise again! Looking forward to ye coming back bigger and more awesome,” one user wrote.

“I’ll host Sweatbox in my 1 bed apartment this month lads! The hotpress can be the dark dancefloor,” another said.

“That’s sad. More and more queer spaces are being reduced or closing down…what’s happening?” asked someone else.

 

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This latest announcement follows a series of closures of queer and nightlife spaces in Dublin, with two prominent examples being beloved pub All My Friends and disco night Sunday Social. The latter was announced earlier this month in a social media post by Sunday Social promoter Buzz O’Neill, who thanked the customers and the team.

“Unfortunately the Dublin we started the night in, and the current situation we find the City Centre in today, are almost unrecognisable,” O’Neill wrote. “Too many false dawns, too many deadlines passed, and too many promises not delivered by Government (National and Local) leave us with no option but to call it a day.”

“Government has also scandalously not grasped the fact that the current cost of living crisis hits the entertainment / hospitality sector twice. 1. The costs of running a night/venue/club have all risen and we cant keep passing this on to the customer. 2. Our customers do not have the spare income to go out as often as they used to, or as often as they’d like to.”