The Shanghai Clubbing Guide: July 2026

                             

By

Heatwolves

Writer, producer, founder of the music label/collective, Love Bang, and a Shanghai character since 2007.

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-focued 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 fifth 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 headlines the night, with support from 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, industrial, and techno from a strong, Shanghai-based lineup. 

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 at Illum. 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.

Cedar Land 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.

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.

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