Melanie Carpenter is General Manager of The Capital List, a website dedicated to covering Abu Dhabi’s nightlife scene. The 38-year-old Australian moved to Abu Dhabi in 2011 and lives here with her husband and two children. She told Tempo how she got involved with thecapitallist.ae and what makes it special.
“It was a case of being in the right place at the right time! The idea for The Capital List came from the owner, Darrell Jacques, who had been working nightlife events in Abu Dhabi for about three years; he saw a gap in the market for a website dedicated to Abu Dhabi nightlife, as many of the promoters and DJs were doing good things but he felt it just needed to be brought together into one place.The other publications at the time weren’t focused solely on nightlife, and the information they provided was often out of date.
“I met Darrell when I was out at one of his nights, we got talking, I sent my CV to him, and he hired me on the spot to develop and market the site. I worked on everything from the ground up – the specs and development of the site, the branding and marketing, the social media, as well as developing relationships with all of the key hospitality, promoter and DJ contacts in Abu Dhabi. It was the perfect role for me given my marketing and IT background, (and my love of music and going out!). I started on the project in August 2011, and we went live on December 13, 2011.
“The Capital List has come a long way! The first phase of the site went live in December 2011, and we launched Phase 2 of the site in August last year, which was a complete rewrite of the site, but also introduced new functionality. Our weekly nightlife newsletter is distributed to around 28,000 contacts each week, and we now average around 3500 visitors per week.
“We’re in constant contact with all nightlife venues, promoters and event organisers, and are now the most reliable and up-to-date source of information for everything going on in Abu Dhabi’s nightlife. We also recently launched The Capital List TV on YouTube, which is a great step forward for promoting Abu Dhabi nightlife. We have some massive plans for the site in the near future; at the moment they are all hush hush, but Abu Dhabi Tempo will be the first to know about it when we’re ready to tell Abu Dhabi.
“Abu Dhabi nightlife took a hit when a lot of people left because of the cost of accommodation, and now, as more accommodation becomes available and prices are coming down, this is starting to reverse. We’re also likely see a resurgence of people here as the economy continues to grow, especially with the latest government mandate requiring people who work for a government owned company to be based here.
Most nightlife venues in Abu Dhabi (and the UAE in general) tend play a mix of urban (R&B and hip hop) and commercial/pop music. I’m a big house music fan (more specifically deep and tech house, and when I go clubbing, techno), so personally, I’d love to see more nights like that here, but unfortunately (for me), there’s not really the market here for it (yet!). Blue Marlin Ibiza UAE (which although is closer to Dubai is technically in Abu Dhabi), is constantly bringing big name artists to its shores.
I’ve also noticed recently that there are more independent promoters popping up and organising events too. Pool parties are always popular when the weather is good. There’s really more going on in Abu Dhabi than people realise, and we’re making sure the world knows about it! There are new venues opening all the time, and more people moving to Abu Dhabi, so it will be interesting to see how the nightlife industry develops here over the next few years.
By Sanah Chauhan
