Shanghai clublife is changing fast. Only a few pre-Covid venues remain, there's so many parties and bookings every week, and it's hard to keep up with everything if you don't follow venues'/promoters' channels (and a lot of promo is Chinese-language only). Our mission is to help you know what's goin' on, all in one central place, every month and to spread the word about good events.
As always, check out our events listings to see what's on. Some of the best nights are the ones with local and domestic acts and resident DJs.
The Current State of Clubbing
Shanghai's nightlife is heavily concentrated in two malls right now: the chaotic commercial clubbing zone known as INS near Xintiandi, and the underground-focused C·PARK just a bit south of Zhongshan Park. That said, outside of these two we've still got a decent amount of clubs scattered around the neighborhoods, bigger acts (e.g., Jeff Mills, Bonobo) are playing at livehouses more and more, and some promoters are throwing cool parties in off-venues like warehouses, museums, and other locations.
C-Park, aka "Underground Music Park"
People have been calling this place "the Underground INS". Located near the Yan'an Xi Lu metro station out west in Changning District, the basement of the C-Park mall is like a ma la tang of clubs, bars, livehouses, food stalls, and more, and it really encapsulates a good portion of what's happening right now in Shanghai with underground music, culture, and fashion. The place is crowded every weekend with young, mostly-local ravers, rockers, punks, cybergoth fashion kids, skaters, chillers, and party people. It's a super cool yet friendly and approachable vibe, and still somewhat low-key. There is no cover to get into C-Park.
Illum, Shanghai's new home for Chinese underground sounds and fashion
The mall itself was designed by Gensler, the same firm that did the Shanghai Tower and JFK Airport. Beijing-born chill club Wigwam opened here in 2024, but the whole basement zone really took off at the beginning of 2026 with Yuyintang, Specters, Illum, Reactor, Sympathy Angel, and more all opening within a couple months. The place is great, and I've been here most weekends in 2026 while trying to resist its magnetism and support venues elsewhere as much as possible too.
INS, aka "Into Nothing Serious"
Shanghai's main commercial clubbing district is a young, messy, crunk, and insane place in Fuxing Park called INS, aka Demon Town. It's a six-floor mall set up like an amusement park, with different entry passes and dozens of venues and attractions inside, like hip hop/pop club La Fin, trap/rage/hip hop club Hush, house/techno small club Dirty House, and K-Pop boys fantasyland Culture Club. Everyone should experience INS at least once, and it's one of the best places in Shanghai for people watching (posting up with a tall boy on the bench is a strong move, and free). You do have to pay a cover charge to enter the building. This month's theme is "Liquor Garden" and apparently they have a trampoline dance floor called "Jump".
If you leave INS at 5am, watch out for Mario! He'll get ya!
The place is packed on weekends, and the crowd leans local but there's a heavy international contingent as well. It's a younger crowd that prioritizes fun over music – lots of people wandering in and out of clubs, trying to find their friends or colleagues, hollering in the elevator, etc. The place stays busy even on weeknights. One friend called the INS venues "chessboard clubs" because of how difficult it can be to traverse their dancefloors. History is looping: Fuxing Park was also a major commercial clubbing destination 20 years ago, with era-defining clubs like Muse Park 97, Richy, Cashbox Partyworld KTV, and Guandii.
NIGHT PLACES in other NEIGHBORhoods
Shanghai's home for harder, faster techno and more, Abyss
In Tx Huaihai, you've got Shanghai's house of hard techno, Abyss, and popular-with-boys two room club Potent, which has pop in the main room and techno/house/electro bookings and a bangin soundsystem in their second room. In Jing'an, Heim is a diverse, community-oriented club where bouncier, more-textured and melodic house and techno (not hard techno) form the club's core sound. Not far from there is Roam, a small club playing house and techno until late. Exit in Changning is a basement club that has some good bookings and sometimes some darker dance music. Down the road from that is C's, an eternal dive bar born in the year 2000 that many of the city's DJs started out at; programming is diverse, the cookies are delicious. Cedar Kitchen on Julu Lu is a fun, DIY kinda venue in a car garage with experimental live music and underground DJs, good shawarma, and the unexpected.
La Social
On the general pop and international side of the spectrum, you've got La Barra, REVO, La Suite, and Le Soir in Jing'an, and the second iteration of Parisian club Le Baron upstairs at The English Corner in Xuhui. For Latin music, you've got bar/club La Social and restaurant La Diosa, which are a quick walk from each other. For big room EDM, MAX is a big sensory-overload kinda commercial EDM club on Huaihai Lu. And down on The Bund, once a major nightlife destination, there's a commercial club called KEV where Bar Rouge used to be.
The Shortlist of Parties/Club Nights/Raves: May 2026
Here's a quick list of some bigger and more unique events this month. The clubs below are generally open every weekend and some have events during the week too (for example, Wigwam and INS are open daily). There's still lots more great nights and bookings on around town, so be sure to check our event listings, and our list of nightclubs. This is alphabetical.
Drum & Bass/Dancehall/Reggae
May 15 @ C's, the 19Hz crew have Spanish D&B/bass music artist Dees
May 23 @ C's, Shanghai dancehall pioneer Jado has his monthly Ruff'n'Tuff night
C's, born in 2000, easily the oldest venue in this article
Dark Dance Music/Goth/Industrial
May 9 @ Illum, a big lineup of local DJs playing 80s freestyle, techno, darkwave, old-school electro, Chicago house, and more with London DJ Sam PV headlining
May 9 @ Exit, gothic clothing shop OKVLT13 is doing a night of coldwave, darkwave, goth, industrial and more
Hip hop/R&B
May 15 @ Illum, Promoter KNOT brings Chongqing OG rapper TORYONDACLOUD, the founder of the Gosh crew (superstar rappers Gai's and Bridge's label)
May 22 @ C's, Shanghai based Japanese rapper crew Cypher Park is doing their monthly freestyle rap night.
May 26 @ VAS est, SHFT have R&B superstar Ella Mai performing live
May 29 @ Heim, Sugar House have their Sugar House Radio Launch party with guest Tsunano
May 29 @ La Fin, Bay Area OG DJ Noodles, who is Kehlani's longtime DJ, is headlining
May 30 @ Reactor: Shanghai-based Preme crew bring HK trap/rage rappers YoungQueenz & N.O.L.Y
Huge new C-Park Club, Reactor
House & Disco
May 9 @ Reactor, Seoul-based DJ Jessie You headlines the Pocket room upstairs
Every Friday @ Upper Nook (except Sat May 9 will replace Fri May 8), X-Bar is doing a pop-up at Upper Nook with DJs playing house and disco
May 16 @ Roam, they're doing a warm-up party for their Shuangda Festival, which is happening May 28-30 near Ningbo.
Three-story restaurant and small club, Roam
Techno
May 9 @ Star@ Culture Center, System is bringing Detroit techno legend Jeff Mills for his China debut. The show is completely sold out.
Abyss has numerous bookings this month, including Circus of Madness with Le Clown on May 15, Metaraph on May 22, and the third anniversary of their C.U.M. party on May 23.
May 29 @ Wigwam, Dutch techno producer Human Space Machine headlines the night
May 29-30 @ Dirty House, the INS club has their second anniversary, with Beijing techno pioneer Mickey Zhang on May 29 and hard techno DJ Meguru on May 30.
Palace of chill vibes and dog-friendliness, Wigwam
Mixed-Genre/Unclassifiable Underground/Off-Venue/Just Cool Parties to Know About
May 15 @ Yu Garden, Alter has their Alter. Pavilion 亭 party. Music will be house, techno, club music, and some hip hop from Tom Yeti, Cola Ren, meer., Devil's Hole, and a special guest
May 15 @ Heim, Love Bang (my label, full disclosure) has their 16-year Anniversary party with seven DJs playing hip hop, club music, and more
May 16 @ West Bund Art Museum, The New Writing Supermarket host a party that they say, "pulls the audience into a late-night ballroom existing somewhere in a parallel world. Maybe New York in the 1960s. Maybe a factory dance hall in 1980s Shanghai."
May 18-24 @ Wigwam, the club is bringing back their bunkbed setup, which is bunkbeds in the club and lots of nice, sleepy ambient music by various DJs.
May 23 @ TBA, Heim is doing a warehouse party. Lineup and details coming later.
May 23 @ Reactor, Antigen have their 8-Year Anniversary, with Doon Kanda & Jesse Kanda doing a live A/V + DJ Set and Balinese duo Kadapat performing live
May 29-30, June 5-6 @ Found 158, the FEAST food festival has afterparties at venues down there in the pit
May 31 @ Sympathy Angel, this surreal C-Park bar has a monthly karaoke night from midnight till late. Seems like a good one to end on the month with.
