For some time I've accepted that this is just the way things are. You need half naked women and camping to lure in the horny and the naive cash strapped newbies. These crowds will attract others, and they stay because of "fun" contests, and interactive DJ's who let you feel involved with your requests. Oh, and of course, you need the contests to fund the half naked women and camping you used to get the people there in the first place. This is the Law of the SL nightclub.
Fortunately, I have seen that this is all a load of rubbish, and that you can run a successful club based on one thing.... the music! The FAC has no strippers, no paid dancers, no adverts, no attached shopping mall, no camping, no contest boards... none of it. What they do have is superb DJ's mixing tracks, throwing down fierce beats, and making you feel like you're ACTUALLY in a professional nightclub. AND they regularly have large crowds that many of the cheap conformist clubs simply dream of. So, how did they manage it? To find out, I met up with Bowyer Hawks, Founder, owner and occasional DJ at the FAC:
Voodoo Buwan: So, how did the FAC come about?
Bowyer Hawks: Well, when I started to DJ in SL it pretty soon started to look like DJing in RL. What I mean by that is I had to adapt to certain crowds.. and was asked to do this and that from club owners. And that wasn’t really what I was up to. I have done my years in RL clubs.. and it was time for something real with no commercial interests involved. I don’t wanna play music so somebody can sell something. So that’s when the idea about FAC came about.
Voodoo Buwan: Yes, the FAC is very different to other clubs like that.... proper DJing as opposed to radio DJing, no ads and no strippers.
Bowyer Hawks: haha.. yes totally. FAC is a commercial free zone. No games.. nothin for sale, nothing costs anything and nobody makes any money...apart from tips which is up to people to pay if they want. We still have a tip jar but have been thinking about taking it away, as people can tip anyway.
Voodoo Buwan: How do you finance the place?
Bowyer Hawks: I just pay it myself. Its only about 50 US dollars a month and that's very cheap for all that it has given me.
Voodoo Buwan: So, it's not a money making venture?
Bowyer Hawks: Oh no, not at all. I don’t sell anything.
Voodoo Buwan: The choice to not have any dancing girls... what was the thinking behind that?
Bowyer Hawks: Well dancing girls never even entered my mind actually.
Voodoo Buwan: Many clubs claim they are a necessity to get the punters in
Bowyer Hawks: Yes.. I understand that they may see it that way, and when we started FAC we didnt know if it was going to work. But if we weren’t able to do it our way we could see very little point in doing it at all.
Voodoo Buwan: How have you managed to attract such large crowds without the use of things like camping, sploders and strippers?
Bowyer Hawks: I think it’s all about a great team of people with great love for music. When I think about all the people who has helped making FAC what it is I really get tears in my eyes...it’s such a great group of people. If you gather a group of people and do your thing and have fun.. it soon spreads to others who like that very same thing. It’s about patience I guess. It’s also important to think about why you do something and not just try to do it as big as possible. I didn’t open FAC because I wanted a successful club, I opened it because I wanted to hang out with a group of people with about the same taste in music as me and have a good time. In the beginning we thought 8-11 people was huge.. and we had great fun. I remember nights with just 3 avatars and a DJ...for like 4-5 hors..
Voodoo Buwan: So, at the end of the day, the music was the driving force first and foremost, and if anyone else wanted to come along, they were more than welcome?
Bowyer Hawks: and open-minded people who don’t judge others.. so its not a music elite we are talking about here either. But we don’t do trance and hard style.. or breakbeat because its just not what we are about. People like Oda Swain and Aresta Woodget and GW Raymaker should be mentioned here. They have done huge amounts of work to make this a reality.
Voodoo Buwan: What would you categorise they typical FAC playlist as then? What should people expect to hear if they wander along?
Bowyer Hawks: Well, people have very different ideas about what is what in dance music. Some people feel that Vocal house is commercial and some think that minimal and electro is a hype. At the end of the day that’s all just words anyway.
I have been into dance music since the end of the 80s and I have my idea of what I feel is right, and GW and Aresta have theirs.... and others have yet a different view but to make it easy...We do House of all kinds!.. and techno of a softer more artistic kind and we try to stay away from things that sound too much MTV
Voodoo Buwan: The place has a very definitely look to it as well.... what was the inspiration behind the design?
Bowyer Hawks: Well, I wanted to make something that was a bit New Yorkish.. that’s where I have had my best clubbing experiences. There was an illegal after hours place on the lower east side called Save the Robots that I used to hang out at when I was studying in NY.. I got quite a bit of inspiration from that. I wanted a realistic look and feel. So that's why I even had to put in that ventilation in the ceiling
Voodoo Buwan: Finally, is there any advice you would give to anyone thinking about starting up their own club?