Eight months after their debut event, travelling club night Haven is fundamentally redefining what a club night should be, prioritising what the rest of the UK’s ailing nightlife scene doesn’t: inclusivity, safety and genuine fun. Inside Haven’s “nostalgia-imbued reality” of hyperpop, electroclash and pop-infused remixes, each ‘Chapter’ recaptures the idealised perceptions of clubbing we once possessed as kids and creates a judgement-free, technology-wary space for self-expression. After selling out their first three London events, attracting an array of rising DJ talent (such as the saxophone-wielding Amanda Sze) and mobilising an entire production team for their distinctive ‘archetype’ promotional shorts, Haven are proving that their values aren’t just lofty aspirations, but a breathing reality.
Traipsing off Dalston High Street last September, I exited the world of sullen concrete and greyscale facades, entering the premises of an establishment called the Bonkers Bar. These sacrosanct grounds were home of Haven’s Chapter III, billed as “no chatbots. no minds forgone. just bodies in tangency until dawn”. Past the security check we emerged into a surreal world awash in swirling projections, furnished with miniature static-emitting TVs, and all cloaked in a futuristic neon haze. Wandering past the bar and down a flight of stairs we entered a long, low-ceilinged room where black astroturf crawled up the walls. From behind a cutout in the wall, DJs spun mixes for a crowd of eclectic partygoers, and the entire room pulsated.
We’d left our world behind; we’d entered Our Haven. Here every partygoer was part of a radical community building project where ‘Members’ are proactive, interdependent democratic participants in the current and future direction of the travelling club night. Going to a Haven event is acknowledging your space to drive a more beautiful world. Their ‘Inner Sanctuary’ of members receives exclusive news and tickets, whilst also providing feedback for future events, taking an active role in shaping Haven’s future vision. Haven’s DJs are known as ‘Heralds’, flag posts to their community that signal incoming celebrations, whilst embodying the club night’s music, culture and ethos. Haven’s signature sound of pop remixes, hyperpop and electroclash represents Haven’s commitment to human connection, capturing the joyous essence of shared nostalgia in moments of screaming the lyrics and dancing along to the songs we grew up hearing, with friends by our side. Whilst Haven isn’t atavistically anti-tech, this drive for real connection represents a stand against the disconnection caused by unregulated technology that only serves corporate profits, rather than the interests of consumers. Their three ‘archetype’ short films, ‘The Doomscroller’, ‘F*ck Work From Home’ and ‘Situationships Never Last’, all introduce these themes of isolation caused by the dystopian technological landscape of today. In each film, only by taking the hand of Haven can these characters find blissful relief.
Haven’s logo – a geodesic dome of interlocking lines – represents this entire ethos: a safe space where human connection thrives amid authentic self-expression, all coming together as one resilient community. Here nobody can touch us.
Chatting to Haven’s co-founders Theo Aveline and Savita Naidu, giddily the pair recall how far they’ve come, from a streetside conversation between raving partners and best friends to now three sold-out events. Haven was imagined as a middle space between mainstream, generic pop clubs and the more alternative underground rap and rave scenes, born from negative experiences of both, whether relating to safety and inauthenticity in the former’s case or judgemental cliquey-ness in the latter’s. The success of Chapter I, described by both as the happiest day and best night of their lives, was a vindication that many other partygoers felt the same way. “It’s validating to know that you’re not the only one feeling these things,” says Theo, ”you’re not the only person that thinks that there’s this problem with the London clubbing scene.”
Haven cuts its own path untethered from one aesthetic or clique, creating a space where every kind of person is welcome and can feel seen. This starts from the co-founders themselves, as Sav explains. “I’m a trans guy who went to an all-girls state school and Theo’s a cis white guy who went to a private school – technically we shouldn’t really have anything in common. It’s two completely different worlds, but part of Haven is that we created a space where everyone can be a part of it, regardless of who you are.” The result is an eclecticism spilling out from every facet of Haven’s events, a “rebellion against conformity” as Sav puts it, one most visible through the vibrant melting pot of fashion on show at each of their events. There’s no clones, no fear of judgement and no pressure to conform.
Exploring your own authentic self is truly #havencore.
As part of this inclusive sense of community, Theo and Sav don’t mess around when it comes to any form of discrimination or hatred. It’s one strike and you’re out, and there’s a list, they tell me. Unlike many clubbing environments, where the appeal for some partygoers is the lack of consequence for creepy behaviour, safety is a core part of who they are. Haven is a literal safe space, a place where positive nightlife memories are made instead of negative ones.
For every event, Haven changes its venue, and so far have traversed North, South and East London. The club’s nomadic nature keeps Haven dynamic and crucially makes it far more accessible than any traditional club could be. “If you have to get a £40 uber back from the venue, that is not accessible, that’s a community that not everyone can access”, details Sav. “Essentially by changing venues each time we’re ensuring that our space is curated by its people not its material space.” In the future there’s big plans to take Haven to other cities in the UK beyond London, or even going global to Seoul, where Theo’s been living for the past few months. In his words, “if you have a network of people that believe in you [and] believe in your project you can make almost anything happen.”
It’s not lost on Theo and Sav that they’ve built Haven without any external backing from promoters, executives or venues, and they’re first to credit everyone who’s helped them bring Haven into the world. Championing the work of talented young creatives was another reason why the pair formed Haven, making their own hub of interdisciplinary talent to platform videographers, stylists, DJs and other artists, subverting the often opaque, connection-based job landscape of the creative industry. They’ve also established a new club night amid one of the challenging periods for the UK’s clubbing scene, where doom and gloom narratives have become the norm. “The death of the UK nightlife is indicative that people in authority positions do not care enough about the lifestyle of young people”, Sav tells me. “There’s not enough of an investment in young people and their experiences”. Theo chimes in, saying “I believe that [clubbing’s] not a luxury, it’s something that should be accessible to everybody. The fact that it’s not and people are having such a bad time when they go out is why it’s dying, so we want to be part of that solution instead of the problem.”
With Chapter IV on the 30th of January rapidly approaching, Haven will soon descend on Tottenham’s Unit 58 for their largest event to date. In Haven’s most stacked lineup yet, Amanda Sze returns for more record-spinning, saxophone playing chops alongside some of Britain’s finest female DJ talents in Mayvi and Heartcoregirl, an array of influential rave founders such as POI and Boy Pillow, and the winner of Haven’s recent open decks competition, Wave. As a cultural bridge between the underground scenes and the mainstream, and the culmination of Haven’s success over the last eight months, it’s sure to be a night to remember.
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Get your tickets for Chapter IV on the website
Words: Taran Will