Petition launched to allow Detroit clubs to operate past 2am

A not-for-profit organisation called the Detroit-Berlin-Connection has set up a petition to lobby for clubs to be able to stay open later than 2am in Detroit.

The current law in the city prohibits people from legally dancing in the city between 2am and 7.30am meaning that clubs are forced to open later and many people are forced to rely on unlicensed parties. 

The Detroit-Berlin-Connection has been set up by two leading figures in each city's dance music scenes with Detroit represented by the Underground Resistance collective and Berlin represented by Tresor. It's lobbying local councillors to push for laws that would allow a 24-hour party culture, arguing that it will help in combatting the city's ongoing economic troubles thanks to nightlife tourism.

The petition, which is called 'Make Dance Legal in Detroit' is calling for an end to section 5-7-5 in the Michigan Liquor Code, which prohibits dancing in any venue between the hours mentioned above. You can support the petition here.

The group says that the beginnings of the law "stretch back to a time when the auto industry and political leaders in Detroit, along with the state’s Liquor Control Commission, aimed to limit hours of entertainment as a way to protect business interests — as well as reduce late-night options for people of color in the neighborhoods, like Black Bottom-Paradise Valley, which flourished with jazz and blues clubs in the 1930s and 1940s, but was demolished to make way for interstate highways and other urban renewal projects in the 1950s."

Earlier this week, Frank Ocean spoke of how the music he's currently working on has been inspired by Detroit techno as well as other forms of electronic music, while the history of Detroit techno was explored in a recent documentary called 'Black To Techno'.