New Years Eve is always a big night in the clubbing world and my previous experiences of New Year are pretty much disappointing with everyone expecting more than what they actually get on the night. DekaDance II however, was a reasonably priced event (£15 plus booking fee for tickets) and still had a good selection of DJ's booked. This was my first major rave since summer 2002 and I once again dragged myself out of raving retirement. I was looking forwards to the night mainly as it was my first event for a while. Having never been to a Dizstucksion event before and never seen the venue before I have to say I was very impressed. The decor was very nicely laid out and the two main rooms were a good size, not too big and not too small. We arrived at the venue at about 8.45p.m to be met by a reasonably sized queue. It was freezing cold but fortunatley the security were getting people in pretty quick so it wasn't long before we were inside. The Hardcore room opened it's doors at about 9.30pm so after sussing the venue out we headed in to see Stu Allan up on the decks. The crowd were obviously just getting into the spirit of things and so although the room was quite busy not many people were dancing despite the traditional classics spun by Stu Allan. It wasn't until Sharkey made a guest apperance on the mic that the crowd got moving. After a short set next up was scratchmaster Sy. As always Sy greeted the ravers with a big friemdly smile as he scratched his way through the set and really got the crowd moving with alot of new material. A very impressive set as usual from Sy (The ravers choice!!). The most amusing part of his set was seeing Sharkey stood in awe as Sy scratched his way through a tune. The look on Sharkeys face was "how the f*ck does he do that" and after Sy finished scratching he simply turned, looked at Sharkey and shrugged his shoulders making it look easy! Sy finished his set and it was getting closer to midnight so me and my girlfriend headed off to get a drink before the big moment. We made it back into the main room for 11.45pm and Topgroove was just starting his set. Through speaking to people in the chill out room I had gathered that Top Groove had got quite a big following from the Dizstrucksion massive. He started his set with the Hardcore re-mix of Robert Miles 'Children'. Although quite a bit slower than the previous set this seemed to get the crowd ready for midnight. As he dropped another couple of tunes I checked my watch to see how far off the big moment we were. By my reckoning it was 2 minutes past midnight and we had missed the big moment. Before I had chance to say "what the f*cks going on" the music stopped and a few fireworks were let off and that was pretty much it! No countdown to the new year, no new year celebrations and alot of confused looks on peoples faces. This was a bit of a let down for me especially as the promoters had blagged on their flyers that the venue would feel a thunderous explosion at the stroke of midnight bringing in the new year. To be fair this was the only real fault I could find with the night though so I didn't feel to hard done by at the end of it all. After Top Grooves set of bouncey techno/ hard trance we settled down in the chill out room and met some very friendly people. Before long the night was over (the event itsellf finished at 3am) and we made our way out. I have to say I was very impressed with the night itself, the aptmosphere was good, the venue excellent and the decor very impressive. I would not hesitate to go to any future events at this venue mainly due to the face that despite the large venue and effort that goes into the events the ticket prices are still very good. The only complaint of the night would be the anti climax of the new year moment but all in all this didn't matter too much as the rest of the night was very good. Maximum respect to all involved for making (possibly) one of my best new year events to date. Roll on next year!
