A Leeds no-photo policy nightclub is arriving this September, and the people building it know exactly what they are doing. Mint XL, the new 2,000-capacity room from the team behind the city’s beloved Mint Club, is not just a bigger space. It is a deliberate statement about what a dance floor should feel like in 2025, when every second of a night out risks ending up on a phone screen before the record has even finished.
Mint Club has spent years earning its reputation as one of the most serious venues in the north of England. Its programming has consistently favoured artists who treat club music as a craft rather than a content opportunity, and the crowd that walks through its doors tends to reflect that same seriousness. Scaling that ethos up to 2,000 people is not a straightforward task, which is exactly why the no cameras club policy feels like such a considered move rather than a gimmick.
There is a reason why the clubs that producers and DJs talk about most fondly tend to be the ones where phones disappeared. When people are not performing for an audience outside the room, something shifts. The immersive clubbing experience that venues spend enormous energy chasing through sound systems and lighting rigs can actually be undermined by a single person holding a glowing rectangle at head height. Mint XL appears to understand this at an architectural level, building the rule into the venue’s identity from day one rather than bolting it on as an afterthought.
Leeds dance music venue culture has deep roots. The city has produced and sustained genuine underground communities for decades, and Mint Club has been part of that fabric long enough to have earned the credibility to try something this ambitious. A 2,000-capacity room is genuinely large for a club that wants to maintain atmosphere and intimacy, and the no-photo policy is one practical way of protecting the energy inside it regardless of the booking on any given night.
Full details on the opening programme and the artists involved have not yet been confirmed, but the September launch window gives the team a few months to shape what the first nights will look like. For producers and DJs who have long preferred playing rooms where the audience is actually present, Mint XL is already worth watching closely.