Goodbye Forever Sanctuary, Hello Dreamscape

2 years ago a daytime rave was put on at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, close to where The Sanctuary once stood. Named Forever Sanctuary, it was a tribute to what was considered by many to be the raving capital of the 90s.

I went to this rave and quite enjoyed it, to the extent I went back when they put it on again a year later. I did however decide at the time to sit out the 3rd one, but then they announced the 3rd would be the last which made me think twice.

Now the final one has happened they've announced that next year will be the return of Dreamscape. Quite how different this will be from Forever Sanctuary remains to be seen.

Tickets went on sale for the final Forever Sanctuary before any line up was announced and the same has happened with Dreamscape. I wasn't going to make any decisions before seeing the line up which didn't appear until months later.

When the line up came out the problem I saw was there were to many back to backs. In particular we had Vibes b2b Dougal b2b Force. I'd like to see a set from all 3 DJs but having them do a set together takes away what was distinct about their sets in the first place.

Some of the back to backs made sense such as Ramos & Supreme or Mark EG & M Zone because these were a regular occurrence back in the day. For most of the back to backs though I don't recall there being such sets back in the 90s, I do remember a Vibes b2b Dougal set but never one with Force as well.

The set times which only came out a couple of days before the event presented another problem. I say this as someone who likes hardcore, jungle and techno, but if you were just there for the jungle you were likely disappointed because there were a few hours across the day where no jungle was happening. My view is if there's a hardcore set in room 1 there should be a jungle set in room 2 and vice versa so there'a always a choice.

The problem is 13 years of history is being put into 10 hours. Lots of DJs played over the years but there's only a finite amount of slots which could explain the many back to backs. 

Will any of this change now it's becoming Dreamscape?

I think the opportunity is there. The Murray Beetson era of Dreamscape at The Sanctuary lasted for just over 4 years from Dec 91 to NYE 95. By limiting it to this era and to DJs who played at those Dreamscapes should give more room to manouvre.

Even if we go beyond the Murray Beetson era Dreamscape was more or less finished by the year 2000 and having no music past this would be welcome.

Whether that happens remains to be seen.