Who’s The Real Headliner: Venue Or DJ?

Drumsheds declares “The dancefloor is always bigger than the DJ”, but can any venue really outshine the artist?

That was the line plastered across Drumsheds’ new season campaign. For a venue barely two years old, it’s a striking statement: a claim not just about scale, but cultural importance. In one swoop, Drumsheds positioned itself not just as a place to hear music – it cast itself as the star attraction, with DJs playing a supporting role.

But that slogan points to a bigger question dance music has wrestled with for decades: can any venue truly be the headliner over the DJ?

More venues now market themselves not just as conveyors of music, but as destinations. Once a backdrop, now the selling point. Branded like festivals: names, logos, and architecture become signals of experience. A ticket isn’t simply access to a lineup, but to the myth of the building itself.

Campaigns reflect this shift. Striking visuals of light rigs and packed rooms suggest the space alone justifies entry. It’s nightlife as destination marketing – the promise that being inside certain walls is as significant as the people within them.

[quote align=right text="There’s a difference between inheriting a mantle and earning it"]

London knows this well. When Printworks closed in 2023, it left a cultural vacuum. Printworks didn’t just host events, it curated them with an aesthetic. The vast press halls, the way light sliced through columns – all became part of the draw. People didn’t just say, “I’m going to see [DJ],” but “I’m going to Printworks.”

Since then, newer venues have tried to inherit that mantle, Drumsheds the boldest. A cavernous warehouse marketed as a “cathedral of rave,” unafraid to suggest – through slogans like “The dancefloor is always bigger than the DJ” – that the building itself is the headliner.

But there’s a difference between inheriting a mantle and earning it. The great club spaces of the past weren’t born as brands – they became destinations because of what happened inside.

Printworks built its reputation through years of careful programming. Berghain’s myth rests not on advertising but on consistency, secrecy, and ritual. Even Ibiza’s superclubs forged identities over decades, tied to the memories of generations of dancers.

By contrast, some new venues seem intent on skipping the graft. Their marketing insists scale and production alone make a space iconic. But architecture can only take clubs so far. What lingers isn’t the shape of the room, but the music played inside, the moments people carry with them after the night ends.

This is where Drumsheds’ campaign jars. By putting the venue in the headline role before the myth has had time to build, it risks undermining the culture it’s trying to claim.

[quote align=right text="By putting the venue in the headline role before the myth has had time to build, it risks undermining the culture it’s trying to claim"]

This shift raises an uncomfortable question: what happens to the DJ when the venue is marketed as the star? The flyer might still carry their name, but often it’s the brand of the space doing the heavy lifting. Tickets sell on reputation – people buy into “a night at X” rather than “seeing Y play.”

For some artists, that’s a gift: they step into a booth where the crowd already trusts the space. For others, it’s a demotion. The night no longer belongs to the selector, it belongs to the walls around them.

Which makes Drumsheds’ message – that the dancefloor is bigger than the DJ – tricky. In spirit, it’s true. But from a billboard, it feels like a sales pitch, not an ethos.

The danger of venue-first branding is that it sets expectations the night itself can’t always deliver. Fans will forgive flaws in a sweaty basement – a blown speaker, bathroom queues – because intimacy excuses imperfection. But when a venue casts itself as the headliner, the smallest failures feel amplified.

Crowd management, sound design, bar queues – these aren’t just logistics. They shape the atmosphere as much as the music.

And in Drumsheds’ case, repeated reports of muddled sound, long queues, and overcrowding have already undermined the myth its marketing tries to build. Those concerns became harder to ignore in January 2025, when Enfield Council reviewed its licence after two deaths, a stabbing, and a wave of refund demands tied to unsafe conditions.

The most iconic clubs didn’t market themselves as legends; they became legends through what they nurtured inside.

Berghain’s myth spread not through advertising but through stories and consistency. Ibiza’s superclubs grew into institutions because generations built memories there. Printworks earned stature by curating lineups and experiences fans trusted.

What ties these examples together is time and trust. Legacy can’t be fast-tracked through slogans or scale. It grows slowly, night by night.

If Drumsheds truly wants to be “bigger than the DJ”, it must let fans say that for themselves.

Because the dancefloor may well be bigger than the DJ – but only when the night belongs to both, together.

Legacy isn’t declared, it’s earned.

Elliot Hollamby is a London-based music and culture writer. You can find more of his work at elliothollamby.com.