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Business News Deals Live Business
Vince Power takes over Dingwalls
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 25 June 2020
Live music industry veteran Vince Power has taken over Camden venue Dingwalls, it has been announced. First job: working out how to re-open post-lockdown.
“[Dingwalls] has such a rich history, though in recent years it has been up and down. It needs a lot of attention but I am excited about it”, Power tells the Camden New Journal. “There are still some things we have to work out – how we manage the lockdown situation and what it means for live music. We may not be able to open until New Year. We are working through plans of what we can do there. We are very excited”.
The venue is actually owned by Camden Market but was until recently operated by a company called Enhanced Hospitality. It only took over the venue in March 2019, promising a big renovation plan at the time. Prior to that, it was run by the Stonegate Pub Company.
Power is best known for building up the original Mean Fiddler group of venues and festivals, which was then sold on to Live Nation in 2005. He has been involved in an assortment of live music ventures since then, though the highest profile of those – Music Festivals plc – ultimately collapsed in 2012.
Confirming that Power was now getting involved in Dingwalls, Camden Market owner LabTech told the CNJ: “We can confirm that leading live music operator Vince Power is set to take the reins of Camden Market’s legendary Dingwalls … Plans for the re-opening are yet to be confirmed but we are truly excited to welcome a newly reinvigorated music venue to Camden Market”.
When Dingwalls will be able to re-open – certainly as a fully-fledged music venue – is, of course, unclear. While the UK government began lifting COVID-19 shutdown regulations this week, those changes specifically do not apply to live performance venues and there is currently no timeline for allowing gigs and shows to resume.
Some might even say that Power’s ambition to get things going again at the start of 2021 is optimistic. Because, even when the government does get round to setting a timeline for allowing gigs and shows to return, ongoing social distancing rules may make things tricky. And there is always the risk of a second spike of the virus and/or a reluctance of ticket-buyers to return to venues until a vaccine is found.
Though, as with everything COVID-19 related, really we just don’t know. But whenever we finally get to gig time again, it will be interesting to see what Power does with his new Camden base.
