Heat & The Gallery New Years Eve @ Carling Academy Brixton, London

31.12.2005

Click here to watch a brief video from the event

Brixton academy is a great venue to hold one of the biggest NYE events in the country. Heat is a promoter well known for high quality events.

Combine that with some of the biggest names (Ferry Corsten, Marco V, Rob Tissera to name a few) in dance music and a fantastic venue capable of holding in excess of 4,000 clubbers Heat at Brixton academy was certain not to disappoint. As a result clubbers had come come from all over the country to attend this event.

Unfortunately the first impression we got of the event was not good; we were moved from queue to queue and were made to wait for over 30 minutes in a queue which combined the guestlist and people who had brought tickets from an independent ticket agent. The result was chaos - many of the people in the queue were annoyed at being pushed from pillar to post and just wanted to get inside. It seemed that the guestlist and some advance tickets were taking LONGER than the standard entry queue!

Anyway, putting that aside we finally got into the Academy and I was eager to see what the event had to offer.

I take my hat off to Heat, they really had created a spectacular event that I will never forget!

First off, the set up of the stage looked amazing - 3 lasers searching across the crowd, a brilliant light show and giant screens situated all around the stages showed a count down and also impressive visuals. Giant balloons were shot from the stage and the effect as they passed through the lasers was impressive - it was obvious that no expense had been spared to make this a night to remember.

The sound system was well set up and delivered a formidable bass line all around the venue and was crisp and undistorted.

On entering the main room we were greeted by Marco V mixing in a remix of "Sweet Dreams"; and the crowd were loving it! The high quality of DJ'ing was second to none all night; anthems were being blasted out along with new and old tunes. Ferry Corsten delivered the 4-5am set and really kept the energy up in what could have potentially been a flagging audience.

Happy ravers filled the academy to a nice level; it was near to being full but there was enough room to move about without being shoved about. The atmosphere was electric - smiley faces all about and a great vibe to bring in the New Year. I didn't experience any attitude or trouble during the whole evening.

As with the majority of clubs and large events drinks were fairly expensive, £3.65 for a pint and £2.50 for a bottle of water.

Overall this was a great event, a NYE truly to remembered - I'll see you next year HEAT for another large one!

You can see photos from the night in the UKCD Photo Gallery.

Click here to watch a brief video from the event

Review by UKCD