I went to The Drumsheds yesterday for elrow. Not my first choice of event, but I was keen to check out the new venue.
The venue itself is pretty impressive and consists of three large adjacent warehouses and a slightly smaller fourth one, which has natural light coming through. Then two sizeable outside areas. Walking distance from Meridian Waters station is only 10 minutes, but I think it could be better sign-posted/stewarded. Nowhere near as much presence as when they launched Printworks. Ended up exiting the wrong side of the station first (mistake number one), then followed google maps (mistake number two). It was somebody selling balloons who pointed me in the right direction, and i was far from alone!
Only the centre warehouse used as a music arena for this show. The two either side were open for bars/chill out areas and the fourth was being used for the elrow animation team on this occasion.
Really impressed by the production, they really went all out. Musically, it was probably the best elrow i've been to, but for me it still felt like it was lacking most of the time. I enjoyed Eddy M's set the most. Groove Armada played Chic Everybody Dance and its fair to say the majority of the crowd stopped dancing! Whoops.
Officially, the license states it can hold 10,000 people across the entire site - and yesterday's event was capped at 7,000. Even with an extra 3,000 in there, the good news is it's never going to get uncomfortably busy.
The negatives?
One thing I - perhaps naively - only found out yesterday is that The Drumsheds (and Printworks) are collaborations with property developers and council's regeneration programmes. They're literally gentrification in action. Personally, I feel like London has too many of these high capacity venues currently operating, and we're on dodgy territory. We must continue to support intimate, permanent clubs as well. There's no guarantee for how long these venues will continue as they are, until the developers decide they need to be turned into dwellings themselves.
Much like Printworks, I'm in no real desire to rush back now I've experienced it. Something like Field Days - when they have the entire site open, including outdoors is more attractive than another event.
Still not 100% though