Forever Sanctuary

20 years ago The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes closed its door for the last time after 13 years of hosting rave and was demolished to make way for a new Ikea. Part of that same development was the MK Dons football stadium.

An event was put on this year by MC Magika in the Marshall Arena which is next to the football stadium called Forever Sanctuary. It's line up was DJs and MCs who played at The Sanctuary and the music policy was music from the Sanctuary years of 1991-2004. Once I heard about this it had sold out, but a 2nd date was added which I went to yesterday. 

Originally it was supposed to be 12pm - 11pm which for me meant just missing the last 10 minutes or so to make my train back to London. Then it changed to 2pm - 1am which meant missing a larger chunk of the event. Still plenty of hours there though.

One has to go back longer than 20 years since I last made the walk from Bletchley Station to The Sanctuary but I recall it taking around 20 minutes. There was a train getting in at 13:38 which seemed perfect for getting there for 2pm.

The train was slightly delayed and walk was much longer than expected. From the point of seeing Ikea to getting to the venue was 20 minutes in itself, a combination of navigating the Milton Keynes walkways to then getting past Ikea to then walk through the car park of a huge Asda and then through the stadium car park. 

We arrived just in time for Vibes and Live Lee to start playing in the main arena. Not too many people had arrived yet but it was still early. It was exactly the sort of set you'd expect from them and great fun. There was a bit of sad news though when Live Lee said that DJ Magical has passed away this week before playing "Rush Hour".

Next up was Ray Keith with just one of the Ragga Twins, the other was in hospital. The rave scene clearly not being the youthful scene it once was. Only caught the first part of his set but liked what I heard.

It was then up to the Technodrome to see Mark EG and M-Zone wih MC Ribbz. I loved those sets at Helter Skelter and anticipated the room to be busy. It was hot, but had enough space for everyone who wanted to see it. Mark EG is still as mad as ever and was a truly entertaining set.

Back down to the main arena to see DJ SS. He was playing The Prodigy when we entered the room but then went onto jungle and playing a lot of the tunes you'd expect such was "The Lighter". Slipmatt came on next, starting off in 1992 and then making his way up to around 1996. He inevitably played "On A Ragga Tip" and his SMD tunes, but later he played "Sunshine" which I'd forgot he'd made. All the DJs played that at the time, but I never liked it.

Next up was The Top Buzz Experience. The original Top Buzz was DJs Jason Jay, Mikee B and MC Mad P. Mikee B never returned to Top Buzz when they returned to the old skool circuit and Jason Jay sadly passed away recently. Behind the decks was Ratty, it was a great jungle techno set and Ratty was playing vinyl.

Then came Swan E with MC Magika who started with "Lock Up" by Zero B which got the crowd going. The set was a decent mix of anthems and more obscure records and it was quite possibly the set of the night.

As we were yet to go to room 2 we decided to go there next to see Dillinja playing jungle. I was thinking how good it was to hear jungle out loud without fearing for my safety given the trouble you used to get at jungle events.

Conscious that we'd have to leave earlier than first anticipated to catch our train we knew we'd miss the bulk of Mickey Finn and Aphrodite. The question was do we leave now or do we see Dougal & Hixxy before we go.

This depended on whether they were going to play 90s tunes or 00s tunes. From what I'd gathered, both were playing 90s the previous week. 

They began with "Elysium", a 1999 tune but was played a lot in the early 21st century. Then came "Fly Away" by Visa, another 90s record so I went to the bar to buy another beer. The moment I bought my beer was the moment they played a 21st century tune. Fortunately it was "24-7" by Eclipse, which is one of the tunes I like from that era.

Sadly they stuck to the 21st century from then on. Having paid £7 for my beer I was going to at least stay until I'd drunk that. The tunes I was hearing were a good illustration of why hardcore went shit in the 21st century. I did notice the room getting emptier too so I wasn't the only one who thought that. 

Once I'd finished my beer they were playing "Eye Opener", a 90s tune but what sounded like a 21st century remix. We then left. I guess you can't fault them for playing what they did, it was part of the history of The Sanctuary. It's just not my thing and the reason why I stopped going to upfront hardcore events in the first place.

Overall it was a good event and whilst the world has changed too much to truly recreate the 90s, it was as good as can be expected.