St. Paul’s Cathedral criticized over partnership with London nightclub

The medieval Anglican cathedral in London brokered a four-year event contract with fabric, a record label known for running an underground nightclub scene in London. St. Paul’s Cathedral planned to serve as fabric’s exclusive partner in hosting contemporary music events through 2030, according to a statement from the club group. Fabric first hosted an electronic music concert inside the cathedral in 2024, followed by an intimate Patti Smith performance in 2025.

Representatives of St. Paul's Cathedral said they felt the collaboration showed the church’s commitment to welcoming diverse audiences and creating chances for people to experience the cathedral through culture and the arts. They said the cathedral would host a range of contemporary artists from varying backgrounds. Each artist’s work would respond differently to the cathedral's distinctive atmosphere, acoustics and architectural heritage, the church said.

The new partnership came weeks after Canterbury Cathedral—widely recognized as the Anglican church’s most important cathedral—hosted a silent disco. The century-old cathedral—the site of St. Thomas Becket’s martyrdom in 1170 by the knights of King Henry II—first began hosting silent discos, also referred to as silent raves, in 2024.

A silent disco is a disco party where the music is played through headphones worn by the participants, rather than through external speakers.

What is St. Paul’s known for? Church leaders first established a cathedral on the site of St. Paul’s in AD 604, which was repeatedly built and destroyed by fire or Vikings until officials began constructing the official Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1087, according to the Museum of London. Construction of the old cathedral finished in 1314 and it remained in use until it burned down in 1561. Renovations on the decaying cathedral continued off and on throughout the 17th century due to the English Civil Wars and then the Great Fire of London, the museum noted.

Construction on the current cathedral was completed in 1711 and the structure quickly became an iconic London landmark, known for hosting high-profile ceremonies. The church hosted jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria and the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, along with funerals for prime ministers Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.

Fabric operated as a London nightclub for over a decade until local leaders revoked the club’s license in 2016 over concerns about the drug culture surrounding the club after at least two fatal overdoses. The club reopened in 2017 with stricter safety rules and age restrictions, the International Nightlife Association reported at the time.

How are people responding to the cathedral’s partnership with fabric? American Bishop Robert Barron, from the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota, released a strong rebuke of the church earlier this week. The second most important cathedral in the Anglican church choosing to partner with a nightclub only proved that church leaders had lost the crucial distinction between the sacred and the secular, he wrote. Losing this distinction will severely damage young people, whose lives are already flattened by the modern preoccupation with worldly success and material things, Barron continued. Church leaders claimed the concerts would help modernize the church and reach younger groups, but those who come to seek God should have a holy place to come to, not a secular concert space, he continued.

Lauded military hero Admiral Horatio Nelson, known for battle victories throughout the French Revolutionary period and the Napoleonic Wars, is buried at St. Paul's. A descendant of Nelson’s family, Peregrine Hood, spoke out against the partnership during an interview with The Telegraph. He characterized the church’s partnership as deeply disturbing and suggested that Nelson would have been troubled by how the sacred space would be treated. The misuse of a holy site would have troubled Nelson more than the idea of a mass of people literally dancing on his grave, Hood added.