Some photos of the initial Exchange Dublin meeting by Alex Sinclair.
.
If you don’t know, Exchange Dublin is an all-ages, drink free space. There’ll be gigs in it, and art and theatre and spoken word shows and coffee, and ideally there’ll be quite a bit of synergy between these different things.
It’s not for profit. The prospect I’m most excited about is the idea of a touring band doing an all-ages show the day after a Whelans or Crawdaddy gig. If something like this existed when I was 16, life would have been much better. Because it’s not just an UNDER 18s space. It’s a place for everyone. If No Age do all-ages gigs in as many cities as possible, Calvin Johnson played the Hideaway House, Ian Mackaye played a hall in the Liberties and Why? played a stripped down afternoon gig in Twisted Pepper – imagine who else you could get into this?
It’s run by a quite bureacratic but logical system of collectives, and you can be as involved as you like, with just what you like. Next Sunday at 2pm, just behind the Turk’s Head on Exchange St would be a good time to start if you’re interested in the music side. I’m excited about this. About seeing gigs in it, about playing gigs in it, about flaking in the gallery part without being pressured to buy stuff. It’s gonna be good.
This is brilliant news, keep me posted on any under 18s gigs at this.
There’ll be no under 18s gigs, but all gigs will be open to everyone.