Zack Polanski at the Night Time Economy Summit 2/2:
"Sometimes politicians make economic arguments. I'm just as interested in the humanitarian argument"
"If we're running a society that is just about public services working, or just getting by. Fine, humanity can survive"
"But what about thriving?"
"What about being around the people that we love, our friends, our neighbours our community?"
"We're seeing a worrying rise of the far right"
"And I genuinely think that nightclubs, theatres, art, music, is a huge part of he antidote"
"Because what you're doing is allowing people to collectively get together and tell a different story"
"The right want us to believe that change isn't possible. That it always has to be this way that it always will be this way"
"One of the ways we can demonstrate that it doesn't have to be this way is creating alternative ideas of what the future can look like"
"In a club, or in an art space, that's where creatives get together to envisage a better future"
"Whether that's on tackling the climate crisis, tackling poverty, antiracism strategy - all of that can happen by having a good nighttime economy"
"Every local authority should have a good night time strategy"
"I used to live in Athens, Georgia, USA - it's really famous for its music scene"
"I was there as a student, sometimes 3am, you could wonder into a cafe, like a late night coffee shop, you'd have a musician on a piano just playing away, people working there"
"But because you've got nighttime cafes open, it would be mean there are streetlights at night, which means safer streets at night"
"It means there would need to be public transport to get there. That's also good as its accessible and affordable"
"There would be toilets people could access at night. Good for me and the cafe but also good for the transport workers, the cleaners on the streets, the people who are keeping our cities running"
"Having a night time economy that thrives means your city doesn't shut down at 10pm, and it can keep going all through the night, creating a thriving economy, looking out for people"
"Less stress on the daytime economy because it spreads things across 24 hours"
"It just makes sense on every single level"