Industry Standard DC

A new series hosted by Shotgun for the minds defining the next chapter of nightlife. Each edition brings together the promoters, artists, venue operators, managers, and tastemakers who define what a city's nightlife actually feels like. Our first capital edition descends upon Union Market on Wednesday August 26th at Tigres de la Noche. DC is the most politically loaded city in the US, and what makes it uniquely compelling for INDUSTRY STANDARD is that a real nightlife scene exists directly beneath it. The people who govern the country clock out and go to the same underground clubs as everyone else. That tension — power and underground culture coexisting in a capital city — is a story no other INDUSTRY STANDARD city can tell. At 8:45 PM, Nayef Issa (Founder of Nü Androids, Vera, and A.i Warehouse), Alisha Edmonson (Co-Owner of Byrdland Records and Songbyrd Music House) and Zach Walker (VP of Partnerships at Shotgun) sit down for a moderated conversation on "Power & Underground". Three different vantage points. No slides, no script. Nightlife runs on informal knowledge. Who's throwing the best parties, which promoters are reliable, what pricing models actually work, how to survive a slow month. That intel gets passed around in green rooms, after-parties, and DMs. There's no centralized space where the people who actually build nightlife culture can sit down together and level up the conversation. The "standard" for how this industry operates has been defined by platforms that treat nightlife as a transaction or by legacy gatekeepers who hoard information. INDUSTRY STANDARD was born to change that. By invitation only.