---
title: "S//IP Endures"
authors: ["nikomas.md"]
abstract: "It looks like we get to keep our club"

---

Whether you believed in it or not, I can say in all honesty that I am really pleased that ꜱ//ɪᴘ survived this difficult period. With nightclubs taking one of the hardest blows during extended periods of covid-19 regulations, it’s quite miraculous that a club which enjoyed barely 4 months of revenue before being closed managed to reopen. It actually reopened with quite a bang, including such refurbishments as a full rearrangement of the layout, and some black metalwork handmade by the club’s owner; it is still DIY in the most literal sense.

With some new help brought in for A&R, the situation looks promising, and there are genuine prospects of great line ups, and even some really top international DJs. It has been easy to think in the past that the time for a dedicated underground club had passed, but most people seem totally onboard with ꜱ//ɪᴘ representing the scene, certainly given the initial rejection the club seemed to face. The closing months of the year are a prime example, with bookings that include ʀᴀᴡ ꜱɪʟᴠᴇʀ, ᴠᴀɴ ꜱɪᴍ, ᴄɪᴘʀɪᴀɴ, Praslea, and ᴀʟᴇx ᴛᴏᴍʙ; these are artists and sounds and materials that actually mean a great deal to people here. Nonetheless, what I have grown to know as the local underground scene here, this ambiguous, amorphous organism to whom this zine has always been dedicated, seems to have reassembled itself; it was stripped down to the cellular level, disbanded, but now the particles have recombined, and reintegrated themselves like a disintegrated aquatic sponge. I see again the white whale of my desires; if I stand in ꜱ//ɪᴘ for just long enough, I witness it flickering in and out of existence, in the corner of my eye.

The night ʙɪʟʟʏᴅ played in ꜱ//ɪᴘ, for example, there was a strong sense of alignment. ꜱ//ɪᴘ may only be a year or two old, it may only have been able to run for a total of 6 months, but it is the result of nearly a decade of work, not just by the owner, but almost a decade of work by a specific group of people. When I first used to visit Cyprus, 6-7 years ago, seeing ʙɪʟʟʏᴅ DJ at ꜱQᴜᴀʀᴇ was quite emblematic of the scene, almost as much as seeing ᴀʟᴇx ᴛᴏᴍʙ or ꜱᴏᴄʀᴀᴛᴇꜱ at ᴋʟᴜʙᴅ, or ᴀʟᴛᴇʀɴᴀᴅɪᴠᴀ or ᴀʀɪꜱᴛᴏᴅᴇᴍᴏꜱ by the beach, so to see this progression culminating in a genuinely top night out in the Nicosia underground feels very circular; it is something you can feel proud of.

Whether it is Savvas, Janis, Tomb, Aristos, Billy, Stephou, you name it, these  people have been running the scene for the last decade, and so many of these people have touched ꜱ//ɪᴘ or contributed in some way. Yes, there are some names who have staked their wellbeing on the club, and collectively we are grateful to them, but it is also a collective club, brought to life by a demographic that coincides directly with the community that CDCY has been following for 4 years. All in all it is pretty affirming, I see my friends all getting on, and we’re finally dancing together again. So as much as ꜱ//ɪᴘ is in business, it nonetheless serves as the socio-cultural institution that our scene needs, and I hope more people continue to accept it in this role as the club grows.
