Last month's Gully Riddim anniversary at Reactor. BIG.
Summer is here and we're still in the club. Maybe posted outside with a tall boy in the hot rain. Maybe wandering from club to club, searching for a feeling.
We know it's hard to keep up with all the parties and bookings going on every week in Shanghai. That's one reason we made it our mission is to help you -and ourselves! - know what's goin' on, all in one central place, every month, and to spread the word about good events. With that, here's some club news, our monthly shortlist of parties, and an intro to the current club landscape.
That said, a lot of good events don't get announced until a week or so out. 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.
Club News for July
Many a night will start and end here, on the first floor of the recently rennovated Roam
Not toooo much news this month but here's a big one: Word on the streets is that INS is opening a new complex called "INS Sea" at the Tomorrowland Festival site in October (btw, Tomorrowland is back on Nov 22-23). That's near the Huangpu River, by the Lupu Bridge. We hear that this "INS 2" will have indoor and outdoor space, and that the current INS will remain the same. Nothing serious.
Out on these downtown streeeets, Roam is back! After taking a month off, the three-floor lounge/small club in Jing'an is back with a rennovated first floor that feels a bit like their other venue, Tang.
System's opening up a new room at their pop-up club in Shanghai Hotel, happening July 11 & 25
Some of the people behind the much-loved and dearly departed hip hop club Ninja, along with some other partners, are opening a new lounge near IAPM. It's called Candyshop and will have food, shisha, DJs every night, a VIP room, and some parties. Music is hip hop, afro, latin, and house. Opening is looking like late July.
Heim is all the way back on Changle Lu, just in time for their fifth anniversary (July 24-25), so don't pull up at the wrong spot. There's quite a bit happening there at that development they call Green Station, including the new bar/lounge, Eros, which has very strong drinks and some hi-nrg.
Community-focused club Heim celebrates five years in the game this month
The Shortlist of Parties/Club Nights/Raves: July2026
Here's a quick list of some bigger and more unique events this month. This is not everything.
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 lots more great nights and bookings on around town, so be sure to check our event listings, and our list of nightclubs.
Bass/Club Music/Techno/Trance
July 3 @ Reactor, Detroit electro pioneer DJ Stingray 313 plays the main room while avant-garde techno producer Actress holds it down upstairs. This is easily one of the biggest techno bookings of recent years.
July 3 @ Exit, local night Hardgroove Mania has the 8th edition of their party focused on this groovier strain of techno.
July 4 @ Abyss, Belgian nu-rave duo Promis3 play the hard techno club.
July 4 @ Potent, OG German techno producer and one of Berghain's first residents, Marcel Fengler, is on Potent's reallll nice soundsystem.
July 8 @ Wigwam, Italian selector and Dancity Festival co-curator, Filippo aka EFFE, plays deep, hypnotic, and genre-blurring electronic tunes.
July 10 @ Dirty House, special guest KINGMAK plays a special techno / bass set. Should be a good one for peeps who like hip hop with their club music and techno.
July 10 @ Exit, promoter 140 Asia has a big night for Dub/Bass/UK Garage, with two headliners from the UK, Sumgii and Patrice, and heavy local support from Diipset, EVA1NSS, and more.
July 11 @ Potent, Berghain resident and one of the few women in the modular synthasizer space, JakoJako, plays a set. Friends tell us she's "quite wizardish with modular but makes nice dancing techno, a bit dubby."
Modular synth wizard and Berghain resident JakoJako plays Potent on July 11
July 14-18 @ The Drinkery (Ruijin Lu), this chill-but-turnt, affordable-but-real-good neighorhood bar celebrates their anniversary, with five nights of parties, tattoos, a whole bunch of DJs, and more.
July 17 @ Reactor, Shabby Club. This one is a big showcase of new new hypercrunk Chinese club music, with Trillionhappy/Billionhappy, SEBii, Hainafromchina, and many more. These kids have a strong following - should be big.
July 18 @ Heim, dreamy, hypnotic techno producer MAYUDEPTH joins Shanghai-based producer Simon Frank and DJ Floating.
July 18 @ ILLUM, KNOT is back with Vol. 5 of their Truth and Lies series, featuring trance angel, Clair, and Agprod. Some hybrid live new underground trance action for you.
July 25 @ Exit, Dutch techno originator Orlando Voorn, the man who has like 20 different aliases, hundreds of releases, and is one of the key links between Detroit and Europe, plays this basement club on Xingfu Lu.
July 24-25 @ Heim, the community-focused club celebrates FIVE YEARS in the game. Dammmmn. Hats off!
New Chinese club music star Billionhappy plays Reactor on July 17
Drum & Bass/Dancehall/Reggae
July4 @ Reactor, China's Queen of Drum & Bass, Siesta, does her annual Siesta Loca birthday celebration with a heavy lineup throwing down bass.
July 17 @ C's, Shanghainese dancehall/reggae MC Jado has a party called Dubwise: Shanghai Town, with special guest WUKONGOO. Jado is the real deal
Shanghai dancehall legend Jado (right) and WUKONGOO (left) play C's on July 17
Dark Dance Music/Electro/Goth/Industrial
July 3 @ Specters, Love Bang's "The Woods" night returns for dark italo, electro, goth, witch house, and other dark dance music.
July 11 @ Exit, Synth Crush is back! This month they've got a "Witch Battle", full of Cold Wave, Dark Wave, Minimal Wave, Disco Noir, EBM, Electro, Experimental, Industrial, Techno. Strong Shanghai-based lineup at this one.
July 25 @ Specters, The Devil's Dancers has a summer special called "Dream Dream" focused on Etherealwave, Dreampop, Shoegaze, Post-punk, and Indie.
The blood shower at Abyss's annual BLOODBATH, happening at K11 on July 18
Experimental/Mixed-Genre/Off-Venue/Just Some Parties You Should Know About
July 10-12 @ Cedar Land, the brand new C-Park location for the restaurant and experimental music/DIY/anything goes venue is doing a two days and three nights series called WAVES CROSS VOL.3, with a program of live performances, six workshops, and talks, some of which are happening next door atIllum. This is big. "Bringing together artists, musicians, designers, and producers from diverse creative backgrounds, the event fosters cross-disciplinary encounters through sound, image, movement, and perception." Also, this place has a maze under the dancefloor, and their grand opening parties are happening July 22-Aug 2.
Cedarland is bringing the DIY Cedar energy to C-Park in a major way. Look for the maze!
July 10-11 @ An Abandoned Hospital,the New Writing Supermarket are back at it. This month, they're at an actual abandoned hospital at the intersection of Jing'an, Putuo, and Changning. They say the place is set to be demolished, and for two nights only, its 20 consultation rooms and one operating theatre will be transformed as more than twenty artists from different disciplines take on the roles of "specialist doctors," each presenting their own form of "treatment" within their assigned space. A full lineup of DJs will provide the sound therapy.
July 10-12 @ byyb Radio, the community radio station in the neighborhood, right on the street, have takeovers from four different crews over this weekend: onefortyasia and Abyss on July 10, UCSTORE on July 11, and melodicine on July 12, with some regular programming in between. Should be a good sidewalk hang.
July 11 & 25 @ Shanghai Hotel, System returns to the e-sports arena here for a couple of pop-up parties, and they've opened up a third stage for these nights. Looking cybernetic.
July 18 @ K11, Abyss has their fifth annual BLOODBATH party, inspired by the film Blade. Blood shower - it's going down.
July 29 @ Wigwam, this Wednesday listening session has a live set by Chengdu-based experimental musician Xiang and a DJ set by one of the best in the Shanghai scene, 吕志良.
July 31 @ Wigwam, Wigwam and Muffle Truffle jointly present Matmos, the American experimental electronic duo known for transforming everyday objects into rhythmic instruments, blurring avant-garde composition, club music, and playful sonic experimentation. Totally original, and a big booking for Wigwam. Guest is Huang Jin, a member of several influential Chengdu-based bands including 声音玩具 (Sound Toy).
The new Writing Supermarket's next party as at an abandoned hospital on July 10-11
Hip hop/Beats/R&B/Funk/Soul
Not tooo much on for July so we're stretching a bit with some of these – we'll keep you updated.
July 4 @ fRUITYSHOP Record Store, they're doing their fRUITY dECKS 2026 party, which is a daytime open decks session. Defintely not exclusively hip hop/funk/soul but might be a lot of sounds in that lane and the spirit is there on their Technics 1200s. Should be a good one.
July 10 @ La Fin, Paris-based DJ/producer Rony brings her mix of trap, grime, UK garage, and hip hop. Judging from her Rinse FM shows, it should be pretty turnt up.
July 11 @ Hush, Jester Beats, who's produced for Central Cee and worked on two tracks on Drake's ICEMAN album, is doing a DJ set live and direct from the one and only INS.
July 18 @ Hush, APMOZART does a live show. He's one of the first Chinese rappers doing doing Memphis rap in China, and was on The Rap of China.
July 18 @ La Fin, DJ T-Double E, who's the official DJ for Thai rappers 1MILL and FIIXD, is upstairs at INS. Looks interesting.
July 21 @ VAS Ear, BADBADNOTGOOD, the Canadian band that have collaborated with Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, the Creator, and Frank Ocean, among others, play live for one night only. We've got tickets on SmartTicket.
Detroit techno/electro pioneer plays Shanghai for the first time in ten years, at Reactor on July 3
House & Disco
X-Bar is still doing their pop-up at Upper Nook on Fridays, with DJs playing house and disco. This is the last month before they take a break to recharge for all of August before coming back in September.
Roam is back and has house/tech house and techno every Wednesday-Saturday night. Some highlights include their Roam Calling party on July 11 and Suiki and Spada on July 25.
Roam is back and has house/tech house and techno every Wednesday-Saturday night. Some highlights include their Roam Calling party on July 11 and Suiki and Spada on July 25.
Neighborhood bar The Drinkery (Ruijin Lu) celebrates their fifth birthday with five nights of parties from July 14-18
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 touring acts are playing at livehouses more and more, and some promoters are throwing cool parties in off-venues like warehouses, museums, e-sports arenas, 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. Mall-ism aside, the place is fun, 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.
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. Heim - which is back at the corner of Shaanxi Nan Lu and Changle Lu, in Green Station - is a diverse, community-oriented club wherebouncier, 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.
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 and also the rooftop lounge club Sky Dome.
Cover Image @sokolll.kirilll
