Saturday night and it's pissing it down with rain when we set off for Enigma. :( My first knowledge of Enigma came from a day-glo Nicki chatting like crazy at Vibelite at Leicester Uni, and showing me a very professional looking flyer with a great lineup. After such a good first impression, and the fact that we like to support up and coming promoters, we decided to lend our support to KCP with some free advertising banners. After unexpectedly bumping into Stuart and Martin dithering outside Oval tubestation due to the rain, a quick stroll down the road to the pub opposite the venue for a quick drink before the venue opened. A classic "old man's" pub was taken over by a mass of young day-glo clad ravers, which emptied shortly after 10pm. I later bumped into the polish barmaid (having a great time) and her boyfriend in Enigma after she left work at midnight. Got into the venue and after a quick efficient search, was in and chucked my coat in the overpriced cloakroom (£2!!) Went to grab a drink from one of the 3 bars, they had no change, so we tried another bar - same thing - so the only change we had was £3.50 which got us 1 bottle of beer to share whilst the bars got their arses in gear. No change 15 mins after opening - not good. After a quick walk round to get our bearings, the first room you encounter on walking in is room 2 which was blasting out some old drum n bass choons - as this room was allocated to the old skool room. As it was still early, room 2 was fairly sparse on people, so I was worried about the turnout, but as I entered the main room, all my fears vanished, as there were quite a few people 'avin' it already and getting the atmosphere going nicely. The main arena is roughly twice the size of room 2 with the DJ raised high above the crowd, above the stack of speakers at one end of the room. Both arena's were kitted out with top notch laser systems. After a quick bop in the main arena, we went to check out the chill out and stalls room. A small-ish room - roughly the same size as room 2 - but with a balcony above with plenty of seating space upstairs. On the ground floor were 2 merchandise stalls, a photograph stall and a small bar. The DJ's for this room were upstairs on the balcony, and up until around 2pm, I don't think that any of the DJ's knew what the word "chill-out" meant, as they were playing proper hardcore and getting the crowd hyped up with horns and whilstes blasting out - it was like a 3rd proper arena! :) I tried to spend an even amount of time in both arena's, looking for a gap in the smoke to take some pictures, :) but I kept getting drawn into the old skool room, especially when DJ AB (some excellent old skool and bouncy techno stuff) and Mayhem (aka the old skool cheesemeister) were doing the business. I think that when Dougal came on later, his set was slightly ruined in my opinion due to the fact that Mayhem had already played a lot of the tunes that Dougal was spinning that night (well it seemed it everytime I popped back in there) Kevin Energy was doing the biz early on in the evenin in the main room, getting the crowd going nicely and I thought that Kaos maybe played a little too fast for the crowd in there IMO. But as someone pointed out to me - this can be good, as some other major events tend to keep the tempos down. All in all - a very impressive first event, reminiscent of early Elations (maybe with a higher turnout) - so if they can move onwards and upwards like Elation has - then we're seeing the start of something big. Good points: Great atmosphere, friendly up-for-it crowd. Friendly, efficient security. A quick pat down, some friendly banter regarding my horn and we were in the venue. Sound systems throughout the venue were good and clear. Bad points: From the beginning of the night, there was smoke - lot's of smoke. It seemed to get everywhere, and just as it seemed to clear - more was pumped out. This is bad for 2 reasons, 1; not being able to take any photo's - as the flash just bounces off the smoke, resulting ina white haze and 2; not being able to find your way around! I was informed by Barticle that the dancefloor in the main arena would get slippery later, and it did quite quickly - room 2 however was fine with it's wooden floor. This was my first time at Imperial Gardens and it has a great 'underground' feel to it. However, the term 'underground feel' is not a synonym for shithole and substandard amenities. Words cannot express just how rank the toilets were. A total health hazard for any of the women who had to place any flesh in proximity to them. Probably the only reason we didn't see the rats is because even the rats have some health standards. Shouts out to everyone I met, I'm rubbish with names, so I won't even try! But a big shout out to the dedicated one known as Rizla Dizla who got knocked down by a bus on the way to the event - but still managed to MC all night.
