Kings Hall Stoke All Nighter
Stoke.

This is always a bit of a polarising event, there are a lot quick to jump on it on social media as an example of how the scene is going down the drain, but it ticks all the boxes.

There are three crucial elements to any do - the venue, the music and the crowd (obviously, but stick with me). As a venue this is absolutely second to none, the architecture, the acoustics, the atmosphere, the dance floor just cannot be faulted; the staff are OK and apart from minor niggles like catering and queues at the bar (which aren't really an issue at all) it's all good, hell they even put jugs of ice water out for people!

The music reflects what's going on with the world, fair range of DJs and styles, who can criticise Sean Chapman, Mark Freeman and Ted Massey?  The latter even throwing in Bernadine and a few other neverplayeds; again on the negative side both House For Sale and I Wanna Give You Tomorrow made an appearance in the main room - but we all need a toilet break at some point (eh Andrew 😟). Sound system is about as perfect as you can get - I've heard a hell of a lot worse and the record screens are great, you can actually read them unlike a few other places. 

Finally the crowd, well what can you say, there's a mix of people, all ages, from across the country. Mix of backgrounds but many regular faces on the scene, half a dozen dancers from the rest of this year's all-nighters were there. Perhaps more spillages on the dancefloor and corridors than you'd like but again the staff are on it straightaway, but it's far, far from a handbag event. You could end up sitting next to some drinkers but hey, post lockdown you gotta do what you gotta do - alcohol has certainly helped me get through it. 

As other people have said in the past, this won't be here forever and when it's gone there's not much else that comes close on all fronts. I like how dark it is too, good excuse for my sketches being "impressionistic" (crap 😁), didn't finish the DJ one and then my pens started running out.

Edited October 4, 20213 yr by Timillustrator