Meet the owners

Meet Louise

Louise Holly runs MASH, Cambridge’s super-inclusive independent club and live music venue which brings open-minded folk of Cambridge together on the dancefloor

Do you have a background in the nightclub industry?

My husband Josh and I have always been promoters. When I was 21, I started working for promotions company Fat Poppadaddys and we ran student club nights around the country, which was great fun.

At one point we were in 19 cities around the UK, though our main cities today are Brighton and Cambridge. So, my background has always been nightclubs and putting on parties, especially student parties.

What inspired you to launch MASH in Cambridge?

We’d been in the industry a long time and even though we loved being promoters, a natural next step was to actually have our own venue to bring clubbing the way we wanted it to Cambridge, delivered in a safe way.

The Fez Club went bust during Covid and it was one of those moments which felt like a real opportunity. Cambridge is our home city, somewhere we love living and opportunities like this don’t come round often. We opened July 2021 and the rest is history.

Who is the team behind MASH and how did you devise the name?

There are five of us, so myself and my husband, then Josh’s business partner MJ from Fat Poppadaddys and his wife, plus Alex, who is a big live music promoter, so he brings that expertise to the business. The name was very much a collective decision as we thought it could mean anything to anyone, so it offers a mash up of musical genres, of people and of different events.

For those that haven’t hit your dancefloor, what’s on offer?

We tend to run between five and seven club nights each week and try to have a different offering each night of the week in terms of music and genre.

We have Queer Get Down which is a safe inclusive space for queer people to enjoy themselves. We have a big student night on a Friday and an international night on a Thursday.

I think predominantly we attract quite a young market but then we have Karma Club which is a sober dance party once a month that my husband’s sister Amy runs. So, we try and keep it varied!

Your club ethos is very much about inclusivity, isn’t it?

Yes, for us it’s super important that we are in an environment where everyone feels comfortable and safe.

We pride ourselves on the fact that we have welfare officers working every night of the week and so if people ever get into a situation that they aren’t comfortable with they can go to a member of staff and it will be dealt with swiftly.

For us, creating a safe space that’s inclusive is so important because nightclubs don’t always have the greatest reputations for caring.

All our staff, from those that clean the toilets to managers, have had Good Night Out training covering sexual assault and harassment and have completed the Ask for Angela, as well as welfare and vulnerability training.

Which live acts have gone down a storm?

We had Chrissie Hynde who played an intimate gig of 200 people at MASH one week then appeared on stage to millions at Glastonbury the week after, so that was amazing!

Music is something we are really passionate about and we are looking forward to growing that side of the
business with more live acts.

What do you love most about running MASH?

I’ve always been someone who loves going out and clubbing so, for me, there’s no better feeling than watching people in a room being completely present, losing their bad day or whatever is going on in their
lives.

These days it’s so rare to not be plugged in to your computer or phone, and so going to a nightclub is pure escapism, and I feel very lucky that we can be part of that.

MASH is at 15 Market Passage, Cambridge. Visit mashcambridge.com