By Andrew Hoon

Clubbers love Zouk and those living in the vicinity hate the noise and mess clubbers make.

You'd have heard the buzz about local nightclub Zouk’s possible closure, and the #savezouk online petition appealing for the extension of Zouk’s lease at its current premises.

As a result, Zouk has been getting more support from its ex-clubbers, people who "grew" up with Zouk over the years. And also, local artistes and international DJs have stepped in calling to "preserve Zouk" for its historical value. There are even some who call for Zouk to be elevated to the status of a national icon, alongside the Merlion and the Esplanade.

The background - Zouk vs. URA

If you’ve been to Zouk’s Facebook page, it is pretty obvious that the battle lines have been drawn. Lincoln Cheng, founder of Zouk, is intending to close the club down unless Zouk gets a 3-year extension on its lease at its current premises.

On the other hand we have the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) who noted that the land used by Zouk is "incompatible with the residential nature of the area". URA has given Zouk till the end of 2014 to move out.

The inability to get a longer extension, according to Cheng, has led to the last resort of starting a petition to obtain one. The petition has garnered over 30,000 signatures as of 30 Jun.

From a good-guy-bad-guy perspective, the URA risks looking like the bad guys if they ignore the petition, deny Zouk any more extensions and force it to close down. Not only will clubbers lament about the loss, but the image of Singapore’s authorities will likely suffer in the eyes of Zouk’s supporters.

And then there was a police raid

In the early hours of Sunday 29 June, the police conducted a raid at Zouk. German trance DJ group Cosmic Gate was supposed to perform at Zouk but were unable to as the police moved in at around 1.50 am.

According to a report by Popspoken, the people were let out in batches of 20 at certain exits. It was unclear what time the raid ended, Cosmic Gate tweeted at about 5.00 am that they were 'beyond sorry' and that the police 'made it impossible' for them to get into the club.

An Instagram user posted her experience of the raid and noted that she "had to line up like a common criminal, get my (her) bag, id and #bodysearched." Her full account is below:

It looks like Zouk is winning the PR battle as the underdog

With all the hype about where Zouk should go, or how to resolve the deadlock with URA, one thing is for sure: publicity has been created for Zouk. Even more so when the police raid was featured in the Straits Times.

The Straits Times coverage prompted ex-Straits Times editor Bertha Henson to say "a reader will assume that the raid is intended either to a) uncover activities that would bolster reason for Zouk's move - although I don't know what since even if vice/drugs discovered, such activities will just move with Zouk.

b) intimidate those who don't want Zouk to move - got "ring leaders'' there?

c) prevent the two foreign DJs from playing there - they couldn't get in because of the raid."

Her full post is below:

Everyone loves the story of an underdog and Zouk has effectively spent close to nothing for this increase in publicity.

Whether the lease issue was deliberately marketed or not, what seems quite certain is that Zouk has at least 30,000 people who are unwilling to see it disappear into history.

Top photo from here.

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