Teen Gothic

I've seen an influx of posts on here of people who are struggling to find their local scene. To put it simply, goth scenes are hard to find for a variety of reasons– either they don't exist in your local area, or they're run by older people who primarily use Facebook to promote, or just in general, there is little to no promotion for the event happening at all because its a small, tight-knit group of people who have been doing scene-related things together for years.

Goth is a pretty niche subculture. You'll often find that goth scenes just don't exist in the city/town you're located in, or whatever scene there is, it's small. I'm a brand new promoter in DC, and so far, I haven't had a completely dead night where no one showed up, but it happens, because the scene is small, and it's hard to find if you aren't intentionally looking for it. As a promoter and an owner of a club night, we do our best to make ourselves visible and accessible, but the work we do can only go so far.

So, here's my advice to people who are struggling to find their local scene– make your own. It isn't as difficult as it sounds, but it is definitely intimidating if you've never been in charge of anything before.

Step number one is to learn how to DJ. By far, the most difficult step out of all I'm about to talk about because it can get expensive. You'll need a DJ table, a laptop, and a digital library of music. I got a cheap table for maybe only $ 150, but you could probably even thrift one. Some tables don't require laptops, but they get more expensive than standard tables.

Step number two is to find a venue. Most goth nights get hosted at bars because the venues are eager to make money off of patrons, so they're always willing to host an event. Find a local bar, talk to the bartender, tell them you're interested in setting up an event there, ask them how to get an event set up, etc.

Step number three: promote. Make flyers for the event. You can make these in something like Canva, which is a photo-editing app that lets you put text over pictures. Print them out, and post them up around local spots (libraries, cafés, anywhere that lets you advertise with paper flyers). Take the image and upload it to IG, or Twitter, upload it to Facebook, make a Facebook event for it, and use hashtags related to your local area. For example, if you live in DC like me, you would use the tags "#dcgoth" or "#dmvgoth".

All of these steps are way simpler if you have friends to help you out along the way. These steps are also incredibly simplified, but I am definitely 100% willing to give a more in-depth explanation to anyone who wants to start their own scene in their area.

I work at a grocery store, and I guess the managers have a Spotify playlist for the music they put on in the store. One of my first times shopping as a customer, they played The Cure, and now, as a cashier, I get to listen to quite a bit of other goth music during the night. I have no clue who's adding these songs to the playlist, but I'm really glad they are. It's hard to find goths in my small city, let alone work at a place that sometimes plays goth music, so I just wanted to share because it's such a crazy thing to me 😭

What is something that you crave to hit the dance floor during, but for some reason your local night doesn't play out?

So I live in a small collage town and as far as I've seen there is zero goth scene or events going on. The closest thing I've gotten is a pop-punk/emo nightthst a local bar does every few months. The attire is set to "goth" but obviously its not an actual goth night. I've seen and spoken to a few other goths around town who have also expressed a want for a goth night where we can have actual goth music.

How would I go about organizing something like this? I could DJ, I have a playlist set out but it's everything else I'm lost on. Any advice?