bouncers idea - my experience

Hi all,

I think the idea of looking at bouncers and the effect they have on an event, and the people that attend. Picking up on the points in the Telegraph article, they interview the owner of Proud Camden, who goes into detail about what the bouncers at his club will look for when they are deciding whether or not to let people in. He says bouncers who work at his club

'judge guests based on two things. One, whether they look like they're going to be "difficult in the club" - "badly behaved or rowdy" - and two, whether they will be "ill suited to the other people in the club" - "such as groups of men hassling women".'

This caught my attention because I had an experience at Proud Camden only a few weeks ago where I was initially refused entry, but later allowed in after my law graduate friend said that she wanted to speak to the manager as the bouncer’s decision was not fair at all! The reason he gave was that I was wearing tracksuit bottoms (which were black and not at all inappropriate looking), even though I was going to a grime night where Bonkaz was playing and 90% of the men in the club were dressed in tracksuits, even full grey tracksuits with cap, the exact reason I wasn’t being allowed in. I was not drunk, or in a large group (3 of us) and was convinced that there were sexist undertones in his decision, if not also a racial aspect, as it was predominantly black people at the event, music associated with and made by black people and a black bouncer.

Just thought it would be helpful to share this experience as it directly corresponds with looking at not just the power of bouncers and the undertones of their decision making, but also the acceptance of different people within different musical subcultures. Like in my experience, I may not be the obvious type of person to go to a grime gig, and this definitely affected my experience there, and how welcomed in I was.