Published
Thu, Sep 10, 2015, 14:30
- We spoke to the owner, Marin Basotov, for more on last week's sudden closure.
Sektor 909, one of Macedonia's largest nightclubs, has been shut down by police.
The techno and house spot, which recently hosted Ben Sims, DJ Stingray and Kirk Degiorgio, is in Skopje, the capital of the Balkan nation. On Thursday, September 3rd, the club issued a statement via Facebook detailing the incident, which saw the club's licence for its summer venue suddenly revoked, despite still being valid. According to the statement, it's part of an attempt on the part of the local authorities to "crush" the city's nightlife scene.
"There has been only one solid reason to revoke the working license/permit of the club, and that is the distance of Sektor 909 to the closest inhabited block of flats," club owner Marin Basotov told RA. "However there are clubs that are closer to the flats, and they are still working. These clubs are run by people close to the ruling political party and so do not oblige to any rule or any financial inspection like the ones our club was having on a daily basis. We are not complaining, but we think that the laws have to be equal for everyone in this business."
"This is the second time where we had to change the location." continued Basatov. "The first time we got threats to simply leave a specific venue where we had invested and work with for two years as well. Just to mention that the block of flats was, and still is one of the biggest and the most illegal building built in town. However the owner has put lots of money into "legalization," just as he has into closing our club. Furthermore he is our competitor and his son owns clubs in the same area, so you do the math."
According to Basatov, the summer venue "has to remain closed until we find a better location for it, which can be a year or two or maybe even more." As of now, Sektor 909's winter venue is still in operation.