New years eve is here again, and the choice is between a house party in Kingston, or the free party in Oxfordshire. We decide on the latter!
So after a bit of organising, me and two mates head off to Oxford.
The directions are crap, with the party line being answered by some bloke who is apparently only any good if you know the area. We don't, so we phone a mate that had left earlier and he manages to get us to the industrial estate hosting the do - eventually.
We park up, and although rather early ( about 10ish) there are already lots of people milling around outside looking for the right warehouse. And we're not the only ones, as at that very moment Mr old Bill arrives, only one car though. We head back to the car and our driver informs us that going elsewhere would not be an option right now, so we stick it out for about five mins and then go back to find the old Bill has buggered off .
We find the right building - a large warehouse, when the door is opened in front of a load of people seemingly randomly milling about. We leave donations on the door, and step in.
First impressions of the venue are good, although in almost pitch dark, only one flood light illuminates a small part of the room, the first thing you see is the 2 stacks, which the flyer informs us are 2 X 20K. Dunno if that's true, they certainly looked the business! The large room is basically split into two, with the two speaker stacks in the middle of the room, forming a wall of hardware pointing in different directions and so two dance floors.
Already there is a good few hundred in attendance, but still with the no music, and the guys running around setting stuff up.
Then the music does start, to the sound much cheering and jumping up and down, one half of the stack is up and running and within seconds the far dance floor is descended upon by hundreds.
This side of the system is Livid, ( I think ) and they kick off with a banging acid techno set, just how I like it, hard fast and dirty, they carry on through the night with some gabba, oldskool and D&B, wickid hard music all night.
Later on in the night, further illuminations are provided this side by a UV cannon, and some other big tracer light.
Later on in the evening the other system cranks up. From the banner behind the decks, this is Destination. They play some really nice hip hop Reggae and Dub most of the night, making a nice change of tempo when my feet were acidtechnoed out, and needed to slow down a bit.
As for the other areas of the warehouse, we had a downstairs toilet in not that bad condition - no door mind you, and after exploring some totally pitch dark corridors, find myself going up some stairs at the top of which I find a load of people sitting around on a mattress or two chatting.
Of those there 99.9% were really smiley and fluffy people, it reminded me a bit of the first time I went out on a New Years Eve, shook so many hands, and much " merry happy new year- " -ing going on. However, there was a one or two very visible undesirables floating about, and they were clearly looking for grief. At another point there was someone trying to get in, that those on the door did not want in. I could see from the other side of the room that the door appeared to be being battered in, very hard, and I thought for a moment it was the Police, so I went upstairs to take a look out the window. Not police, no cars anywhere, justa few people outside. I later learned from one of my mates that it was a bunch of pissed up twats, trying to batter they're way into the venue. The doormen overcame, and they were not allowed in.
On the whole I had a fantastic time, one of the best warehouse parties I've been to, certainly the biggest, there were literally hundreds there, and I wouldn't be surprised if at the peak it hit a thousand.
We left for home in Reading at about 07:00, I later heard that it finished at around 10:00, and apparently was allowed to run it's natural course.
Big shouts to everyone there for making it such a fluffy atmosphere to celebrate the New Year, and big thanks to the systems Destination and Livid for an impressive party.
Rob.
