The first discussion/news-based video for a while, on a topic that needs serious addressing. If you went to the event, do feel free to share your own experiences - both positive and negative - in the comments 💙
I traveled from Spain just for this event and went there by myself. I gotta say I was gutted I missed andromedik, mph and could only see the last 10 minutes of Nero because of the massive queue, but still seeing S.P.Y Pendulum and knife party was incredible and was worth the travel. The love and energy UK people showed for this music was something else, like nothing remotely close in Spain. If more events like this are on the way I won't think twice before coming back
The signage was such a huge issue. The disorientation I felt throughout the entire night was like nothing I've experienced at any other show. Absolute nightmare. Such a shame given the significance of the event and what it symbolises within the bass music community.
The events organising was one of the worst I've ever been to. We decided to roll up around 8:00PM and we scanned in. We then proceeded to queue up, outside (and near the end in the rain) for nearly TWO hours. The queue was more of a crowd of people pushing and trying to force themselves at the front. Once we got IN to the venue, we were faced with security that barely checked and then forced us through one sniffer dog that looked overworked. As we got into the event, we had already missed most of the people we wanted to see, but managed to get to see Pendulum.... well, the last half of it. They decided to lock the doors to the main stage and forced MORE crowding in the lobby with the drinks, toilets etc. just as Pendulum was going onstage forcing people to shove and push people. I've never felt more unsafe in an event in all my life. We only got in to see pendulum as people chanted 'let us in' and someone pushing security out of the way forcing the doors open to see them. Absolute shocker of management and organization. I hope they really consider the feedback for the future, especially with the fact that if a fire or any form of emergency were to happen multiple people wouldve gotten VERY hurt, if not killed.
I was at the Four tet event last month and was all smoove the whole night. They clearly oversold this event and security couldn't handle it. Aparently there was an incident the week before which would explain the extra security checks. Personaly, I don't think these venues work for bass music, but I understand that you can fit more people in there to meet demand.
Here's my personal experience of that night. A friend and myself came all the way from Germany for this event. As a massive Pendulum and Knife Party fan, this was basically a dream come true for me, as they're rarely playing in Germany. The rest of the lineup was also sick of course - Nero, Flux, Rusko, Caspa, you name it. We bought the expensive Drumsheds Plus tickets, which allowed for fast entry and offered a special backstage area with its own bar, bathroom, wardrobe etc. We arrived at 7 pm and the queue was already massive. When we realized we could basically just skip the whole queue and walk past all of them with our Plus tickets, we almost felt bad. I also felt bad for the first acts because hardly anyone was inside at that point, the crowd for Grafix & Andromedik for example was tiny, as all the people were queuing outside. We were mainly in the X room, but also checked out the Y room. I agree that the sound quality overall wasn't great, especially for the live acts. The signage was also really bad, we got lost several times and asking the staff didn't really help either. Everything else was going pretty well, Koven and Nero really smashed it (loved that Nero were playing so many of their old hits). Then Pendulum started playing. As I said, huge Pendulum fan, never seen them live before, basically travelled from Germany just to see them (and KP). I wasn't disappointed, but the experience wasn't so great as I was constantly trying not to get crushed. I was near the front row, so you obviously expect some ruckus there, but I'm not exactly a fragile guy and had to really push against all the people trying to get my place and pushing from behind. I could not fully enjoy the show and did not feel very safe. The worst part though was that someone in this super packed crowd stole my friend's phone. There were even signs that warned of phone thieves, which I found out afterwards. When Knife Party finished and the event closed, we tried to get to the info point and ask for any lost & found items. But first we had to find said info point - and oh boy, were we in for a treat. As the signage was so poor, we didn't manage to find it ourselves, so we asked the staff & security for help. It was astonishing how clueless everyone was. Nobody could give us a clear answer or direction. Everyone pointed us to a different location. At one point we got so lost, we found ourselves in some weird staff only areas (staircases and storage areas which were definitely not for our eyes). The few employees we walked passed there didn't even ask for our permission to be there or wondered who tf we were. When we finally found the info point after about 30 mins of clueless wandering around and asking any staff member / security that crossed our path, we had to wait another 20-30 mins at the info. While waiting, the security pressured us to leave the place. I explained to them that my friend was trying to find his phone, but that didn't seem to interest them. They weren't very polite or supportive at all. I understand that it's not an easy job to safely clear a venue with that many people, but I don't think that pressuring the guests out of the building after their belongings have been stolen is the way to go either. Unfortunately, the phone was gone, so we left Drumsheds with mixed feelings. The lineup was great, many acts were great, seeing Pendulum x Knife party truly was a dream come true for me. But it was definitely not the experience that it should and could have been. And if we didn't had our Drumsheds Plus tickets (which basically felt like we're cheating), my résumé would probably be not very good. I'm sorry for everybody who missed their favourite act. And I can completely see why many people felt uncomfortable and unsafe at this venue.
Thank you for the write-up, and I'm sorry your international trip a UK DnB event didn't live up to the expectations you rightly had of it - I'd have been gutted in your position as I've similarly considered travelling abroad to see acts like Andromedik play (specifically for his Invites @ Antwerp Expo event). Also makes me feel for the artists, I'd seen multiple people commenting on Instagram reassuring Andromedik that the small crowd at his joint set was due to poor venue management, not his fans! I can't promise you'll have a better experience elsewhere, but I would say that in the north of England (Manchester) we have "The Warehouse Project" (sometimes referred to simply as "WHP"), which is a comparable venue (both in size and the calibre of acts it attracts) to Drumsheds - but has been around a lot longer with a proven history for hosting large-scale events. In all the times I've been, I've never faced these kind of issues, including at the DnB Allstars event on December 13th, same day as Drumsheds UKF event I believe. So, if Pendulum do a similar kind of event here, I would look into it - although I understand this isn't an easy trip with travel and accomodation costs included.
Me and my mates got tickets for Bristol the day they came out, then came the Drumsheds announcement and I was honestly a little sad that we'd gone with Bristol as I LOVE Pendulum and Modestep, I've especially wanted to see 'Modestep - Live' for years. But now after seeing the fallout from London, and having had a great time in Bristol, I'm so glad we stuck with it. Document seems to be a great venue, good loo situation, big ol smoking area, spacious main arena, short queues (arrived 1hr before last entry and was inside within 20 minutes max), really good sound (for once I could actually hear the MCs and vocalists mics) and ofc your surrounded by Bristol's ravers - who really seem to ooze passion for dance music. One thing that I've not seen people bring up, is how silly it is to have a cap on the main room of your event that doesn't allow every punter to get in - when you're booking a band that sold out a 20K arena in London literally this year. Yes, you could assume that a few people are going to head the other rooms because they don't really like Pendulum, and I'm sure that happened (Flux P wasn't playing to no one) but this seems like a very obvious flaw. That's pretty much the only thing that I'd put the blame on UKF for, especially as the Bristol event happened without any hiccups (AFAIK). It's kind of a shame that Broadwick Live have a stronghold on these kind of events as they have the lease to basically the biggest dance-exclusive venue in London. I can't particularly think of other venues that you could host something like this at. I did actually see an old poster from a 2013 event at Ally Pally that had C&S and Knife Party headlining, the poster said it had 3 rooms so that would be roughly the same capacity as Drumsheds. Unfortuantely the sound is never particularly impressive at AP so I'm not sure it would be worth it. (Edit) I'll say as well, in regards to security/staff, that London has THE WORST security/staff at venues compared to everywhere else in England that I've been to. Pretty sure for stuff like this all the staff are agency, and the vast majority don't give a fuck about what's going on at all and are not interested in helping you. They're just brought in for that night and are either not briefed properly, or don't take it in as they'll just be somewhere else the next weekend.
We (a group of 4) got to Drumsheds about quarter to 8 with the early tickets. Once we scanned and turned the corner it was a whole block of people waiting. No toilets near and it was freezing cold. Once we finally reached security (and metal scanners that seemed pointless) who either didn't care, or were being above themselves, we were finally in after about two and a half hours. Now missed Modestep who apparently played at a almost empty stage. A friend who was part of our group was humiliated by security because of a medical issue, and wet herself when going through security and the sniffer dog. The handler was going on about "how he knows his dog" and pulled her aside because the dog smelt this, and she had to find her meds to support her. Now, once we was in, getting ourselves drinks (London event prices of course) it seemed like it was getting better. Koven seemed out of place, Nero was amazing and Caspa and Rusko were perfect. Now, the short half n hour for pendulum to get ready people left to get drinks/go to the smokers area and bloody de ja vu.. A huge crowd trying to fit through a single doorway with people trying to push through in the opposite direction to get into X room. I'm suprised nobody got trampled or even seriously hurt because of poor planning from this. Will definitely avoid drumsheds now. Annoyingly it's the only big venue that does events like these to where I live.
I was there too, and queued for nearly two hours. The queue was seriously unsafe; thousands of us just packed in like cattle with no staff at all. By the time I actually got in, the vibe was just totally killed for me. I missed most of Nero, who I was there to see above all. I stayed for Pendulum but I couldn’t bring myself to stay any longer.
At the Bristol event I refused to pay for the spenny drinks so my walk back to my accommodation was dehydrated torture 😭 thankfully it was a 30 minute walk but it was the most dreadful 30 minutes of my life. Couldn’t find any water stations or anything but maybe I was blind
There was jugs of water and cups at the end of the left-hand bar (as you walk into main room). Shamed you missed those man! I would've been done out if I couldn't get hydrated during that 😂
Havent lived in the UK for a while but was at the very early UKF birthdays i forget which small venue for the 2nd or whayever with flux/gemini/doctor p etc and the next at ally pally the year after that witt modestep/C&S/pendulum etc and those nights were incredible. Saw this lineup and thought it was incredible shame it didnt work out 😢
We've had luck to get the vip tickets and I couldn't believe how long was the regular queues.. I can't imagine waiting for 2 hours when we travelled for the event from Poland. Considering all the checkins it's a great point that no ID's was checked..
I had the same experience mate. People pissing in the queue next to me, missed half the acts I wanted to see. About 20 mins before Pendulum was about to start, the doors to room X were closed, I asked the security guard who was next to the door why they weren't letting people in he said "it's full, go to room Z". Wrong... it was fucking empty they were just queuing outside for some reason instead. To top it off the sound was fucking awful in room X.
wow guess i was lucky to get there early. i had mad fun, nero completely blew me away. lads pissing next to me in the queue was bit mad tho lmao. i also heard many peeps saying drumsheds was never that bad before w the queue, also making us choose between pendulum and flux was a bloody crime, gotta see flux another time for sure
I really hope the organizers learn from this BIG time. Especially the whole ID check not being 1st?! Here in the US its to check IDs 1st before you even step inside the club or event.
As a comparison, for the Four Tet curates event in early November, everything felt pretty smooth. Going in, short to no queues, security were pleasant, IDs checked before any security searches, plenty of space. Still two/three tiers of searches, but it was all smooth regardless. That crowd was also there for a variety of genres, electronica, house, techno, dubstep, grime, jungle, dnb, so I cant really comment on genre assumptions, but (other than a suprise andy C set), there want anything as "aggressive" as this one. Also my first time at drumsheds, and everything was pretty easy to find stuff, signs were decent. Audio was a bit questionable, similar experiences with X being a bit naff but manageable for the room, Y and Z being pretty good. The biggest criticism I had, oddly, was that the visuals werent really fit for a four tet set! I think the biggest thing I can say, is that I ended up meeting up with a guy who goes to almost every Drumsheds show since he's local and gets free tickets - talking to him, he told me that everyone there has always looked out for him and his friends. This one sounds completely different in comparison.
I flew over from Ireland for it with a mate, got my ticket scanned at 8 and like everyone else had to queue for 2 hours. The security was a joke, it was as if they just wanted to seem like they were doing something when letting people in. They opened up my wallet and took my chewing gum, patted me down for a solid minute, all to just be offered pills within 5 mins of walking into Notion and MPH's set so the extended searches were literally pointless. I still had a great time, I wasn't drinking so didn't have to deal with the bullshit at the bars and I spent the whole night in the Y room where the sound was really good as long as you were near the rail, but it's so disappointing that an event that could have been iconic fell so flat in so many ways
I've been to Drumsheds twice this recently, for Four Tet last month and then for UKF. It was definitely overall busier for UKF, but the entry queue was definitely another level. I got there at 7:45pm and got in by around 9pm, which by the sounds of things wasn't too bad. In replies to emails Drumsheds have said there were "enhanced security measures" in place. Honestly, I don't think there's any validity to some sort of profiling of crowd being to blame, it sounded as if they were spooked by a specific piece of info provided to them about a security threat (probably by police). That was clearly managed poorly, but honestly I've got nothing against any of the staff on the night who seemed as frustrated as we were, and I thought the people in the queue were generally quite good-natured and calm, which may have avoided more serious and dangerous crushing happening. Also was a real shame about the technical issues for Modestep. Drumsheds clearly isn't a great set up for live bands, as shown with the relatively poor sound for pendulum as well. Think they're planning a different London show in the near future to make up for it. Overall was still a good night and was great to finally catch a NERO set
That's such a letdown, I remember the lineup dropping and having max FOMO. Not that any event gets an excuse but you can't afford to mess up events of that magnitude in particular
I didn't go to this event, but have been to Drumsheds 3 times this year. I'm surprised as I did not have any of these issues at any of the 3 events. Might be because they were all day events, and not as big "on paper". Sounds like a big shame though, I was sad not to be going at first!
One disappointment I had, was that UKF and Knife Party released and promoted the Bristol show the night after first, as the 'big comeback' of KP, so we bought tickets for that, and THEN the London Drum sheds was announced with Pendulum LIve and a overall much better line up 🥲 Sad to hear the London show was a let down though.
Knife Party???? House???? No way, what's next, they'll play Drum and Bass as Pendulum? Just kidding, but what did you expect from them, they got huge because of House
@@Dubstone 😂 Yep they literally have released many house tunes. IDK what kind of set London got, but in Bristol Gareth played OG Dubstep, Riddim/Brostep, UKG, House, Techno, Drum & Bass.
Kinda glad I didn’t go now after hearing this, my mate went to Drumsheds when it was the Worried about Henry event and they had the exact same issues especially with the sound system
was hoping to go to this event, but it seems it had the same problems as Warehouse project did when I went to the nia archives event in November, very lackluster sound there as well and overcrowding to the point where we couldn't even get into the room to see 4am kru without being crushed. I think venues of this size don't focus enough on the logistics of actually creating a good space for a show and just put all their attention into booking the biggest names to draw in huge crowds for exposure.
It wasn't just the two hours to get in, it's also the letting people out between tiny barriers in groups of 50. Never had to QUEUE to get OUT of a venue before. My group were also escorted all over the site by various useless security guards. We were promised taxis from the 'artist taxi rank' as we were with an event photographer, but this taxi rank shut less than an hour after the event closed. It took another hour to get a taxi from Tesco and as a woman it felt extremely unsafe. They cared far too much about people bringing in personal portions of drugs but ACTUAL safety they couldn't give a shit!! This was supposed to be THE event of the year for dubstep fans, but unfortunately it will be remembered for the wrong reasons.
It seems to be a prerequisite set by local councils these mega clubs, I was up at WHP in Manchester a few weeks ago and the queuing was similarly stressful albeit only 45 minutes. Being herded like cattle because they need to fulfil some type of quota/regulations for checking drugs is upsetting. I remember there being 3 dogs for 10,000 or something crazy like that. The sound really doesn't carry well over these huge rooms and trying to navigate through the crowds in the darkness from one room to another is not easy, and let's not even start with the drink prices... It's almost the picture antithesis of the early 90's squat raves where 30,000 people would show up to a field in the middle of nowhere and have a blast. I'm not trying to be a hater since this is the music we all love but I can't help but feel when things reach a certain size and level of commercialisation that it becomes harder to enjoy since sacrifices have to be made by the organisers and venue. It's a shame since Printworks, even though it had plenty of flaws, was for the most part a great club and its successor seems completely sterile. I hope that Drumsheds can get their act together but this isn't the first time I've heard complaints of this nature, I'll probably stick to my Fabric, Troxy, Outernet, etc, and open air festivals in the future though.
6:36 is pretty much the same assumption that led to Eptic being screwed over by ministry of sound. Another thing you didn't mention was the clear lack of experience from the bar staff. Myself and my friend who went separately, both of whom work in the hospitality industry, noticed that many of the staff members seemed to have no experience at all and it took them two people to pour one drink quite often. I had one person serve me two drinks and while they gave them to me the guy next to me said he'd ordered the same 5 minutes ago from the same person and hadn't been given them (he was right). This was what caused such huge queues at the bars
I mentioned it in the sense of them having no idea where most things were within the venue, and how they treated some of the attendees. But I didn’t have that drink experience myself or hear of it, hence why I didn’t add. Interesting coz it’s such a huge venue, to not have things like that completely on lock
Drumsheds deals with 15k people most weeks and normally it only takes half an hour to get in. Past Worried About Henry events are also sold out dnb but didn't have this problem. Disgraceful mismanagement by security
Flew in from the states for this, hoping it would have been a great destination venue akin to Printworks. Alas, it felt like it was a shambles falling apart under its own weight.
On two occasions Drumsheds has let me down now. Andy C's night had technical issues and the UKF event was chaotic and unsafe. If an incident had occurred like the one that shut Brixton academy, there would have been far more people in danger. I will not be returning to this venue.
Generally they don't do anything, except make people who do have drugs overdose in the queue because they'd have enough to take over the night, which is too much to take in one go. Sniffer dogs generally increase deaths and are a massive red flag for me if any venue has them
This was my first ever rave and not a good experience. Obviously the waiting, but also for me the sound was terrible. Felt like the speakers were turned up to max without fine tuning the sound. All I could hear was the bass and ear piercing highs.
Bad experience, unfortunate that the organization was not good and neither was the sound treatment, as you well comment it seems to be that it is not taken seriously that one would expect despite being 15,000 people who attended. It is also curious that drumshed has numerous events and none of them has had such a bad organization, ukf should take responsibility and return a percentage of the money to each person who had a bad experience, otherwise the bitter feeling will not be taken away from anyone, it also strikes me that the artists do not express any discomfort even though they know what happened, that speaks very badly of the scene, they all leave a lot to be desired.
I was there and I'm usually at the back of a room at a gig but had to be literally on the front rail to have any sort of experience because the sound system was so bad. I wouldn't ever be going back to Drumsheds. If I didn't get a backstage pass and had to deal with that main queue I would 100% be taking action against them. No toilets inside is insane, the fact you had to miss 10 minutes of a set just to go to the toilet annoyed me.
Basically, there was major organisational issues from the brand Drumsheds, with very incompetent security guards and people who were behaving REALLY bad. As a result, people who wanted to see their favourite artists have been seriously mistreated. Some of them have been pushed, some others have been "humiliated" (according to some comments on Google), leading to total chaos. And Drumsheds (the brand in collab with UKF) tries to wipe and delete all negative comments, closing their eyes like nothing happened. People could have been seriously injured, even killed. (Hopefully nobody has been killed, but it left many people very disappointed by the event)
I'm not British but from my perception, UKF aren't the types of people to run events. It feels to me that their lack of experience should indicate they should hire some event leads if they wanna run more events like this.
I went to a different UKF event for Netsky at Outernet and this was just as bad. Not sure why UKF go for these crappy venues and have such heavy handed staff.
For me it incorporates any and all dark, heavy electronic music. Some would distinguish more mainstream kinds of music from others in calling it bass music. Some would say it’s mainly dubstep, drum & bass, bass house and a couple other styles. Open to interpretation really, but mostly dark, heavy forms of electronic music like I said
Yeah I find it weird that it’s always defined as a combination of genres but I only really hear people who predominantly mean modern dubstep / brostep use it
"Bass music" generalizes EDM genres that has a focus on bass, so, for examples besides the ones said, Future Bass, Speed Garage, Glitch Hop, Drum n' Bass, Bass house, Midtempo (bass), and even Moombahton.
Ehhhh you say the biggest but they've thrown like 6 events since 2010, and even companies like Shindig now help run Boomtown with Audio. So I really wouldn't say anywhere close to the biggest, more like internet famous. The guy running UKF doesn't seem remotely business smart and you can see that over the years. I mean, claiming to have constructed the initial ''bass music'' revolution is bonkers, shit's been happening since the 70s when Disco was big. Crazy ego on the kid, must be a cokehead.
Qualité des groupes proche de zéro ! Mauvais réglages sons ! Modestep interrompu plusieurs fois manque de son de qualité … une mauvaise gestion de la foule et des prix affolants pour les boissons ! Nous sommes venus de Belgique pour cet événement … très déçus de la qualité.
![Chris Langan - The Interview THEY Didn't Want You To See - CTMU [Full Version; Timestamps]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9miVG2xT5jY/mqdefault.jpg)
The first discussion/news-based video for a while, on a topic that needs serious addressing.
If you went to the event, do feel free to share your own experiences - both positive and negative - in the comments 💙
I traveled from Spain just for this event and went there by myself. I gotta say I was gutted I missed andromedik, mph and could only see the last 10 minutes of Nero because of the massive queue, but still seeing S.P.Y Pendulum and knife party was incredible and was worth the travel. The love and energy UK people showed for this music was something else, like nothing remotely close in Spain. If more events like this are on the way I won't think twice before coming back
The signage was such a huge issue. The disorientation I felt throughout the entire night was like nothing I've experienced at any other show. Absolute nightmare. Such a shame given the significance of the event and what it symbolises within the bass music community.
Do they still have a one-way system in effect to get around the venue?
The events organising was one of the worst I've ever been to. We decided to roll up around 8:00PM and we scanned in. We then proceeded to queue up, outside (and near the end in the rain) for nearly TWO hours. The queue was more of a crowd of people pushing and trying to force themselves at the front. Once we got IN to the venue, we were faced with security that barely checked and then forced us through one sniffer dog that looked overworked. As we got into the event, we had already missed most of the people we wanted to see, but managed to get to see Pendulum.... well, the last half of it. They decided to lock the doors to the main stage and forced MORE crowding in the lobby with the drinks, toilets etc. just as Pendulum was going onstage forcing people to shove and push people. I've never felt more unsafe in an event in all my life. We only got in to see pendulum as people chanted 'let us in' and someone pushing security out of the way forcing the doors open to see them.
Absolute shocker of management and organization. I hope they really consider the feedback for the future, especially with the fact that if a fire or any form of emergency were to happen multiple people wouldve gotten VERY hurt, if not killed.
Amen. I feel sorry for UKF because drumsheds let the whole thing down.
I was at the Four tet event last month and was all smoove the whole night. They clearly oversold this event and security couldn't handle it. Aparently there was an incident the week before which would explain the extra security checks. Personaly, I don't think these venues work for bass music, but I understand that you can fit more people in there to meet demand.
Here's my personal experience of that night. A friend and myself came all the way from Germany for this event. As a massive Pendulum and Knife Party fan, this was basically a dream come true for me, as they're rarely playing in Germany. The rest of the lineup was also sick of course - Nero, Flux, Rusko, Caspa, you name it.
We bought the expensive Drumsheds Plus tickets, which allowed for fast entry and offered a special backstage area with its own bar, bathroom, wardrobe etc. We arrived at 7 pm and the queue was already massive. When we realized we could basically just skip the whole queue and walk past all of them with our Plus tickets, we almost felt bad. I also felt bad for the first acts because hardly anyone was inside at that point, the crowd for Grafix & Andromedik for example was tiny, as all the people were queuing outside.
We were mainly in the X room, but also checked out the Y room. I agree that the sound quality overall wasn't great, especially for the live acts. The signage was also really bad, we got lost several times and asking the staff didn't really help either. Everything else was going pretty well, Koven and Nero really smashed it (loved that Nero were playing so many of their old hits). Then Pendulum started playing. As I said, huge Pendulum fan, never seen them live before, basically travelled from Germany just to see them (and KP). I wasn't disappointed, but the experience wasn't so great as I was constantly trying not to get crushed. I was near the front row, so you obviously expect some ruckus there, but I'm not exactly a fragile guy and had to really push against all the people trying to get my place and pushing from behind. I could not fully enjoy the show and did not feel very safe.
The worst part though was that someone in this super packed crowd stole my friend's phone. There were even signs that warned of phone thieves, which I found out afterwards. When Knife Party finished and the event closed, we tried to get to the info point and ask for any lost & found items. But first we had to find said info point - and oh boy, were we in for a treat. As the signage was so poor, we didn't manage to find it ourselves, so we asked the staff & security for help. It was astonishing how clueless everyone was. Nobody could give us a clear answer or direction. Everyone pointed us to a different location. At one point we got so lost, we found ourselves in some weird staff only areas (staircases and storage areas which were definitely not for our eyes). The few employees we walked passed there didn't even ask for our permission to be there or wondered who tf we were.
When we finally found the info point after about 30 mins of clueless wandering around and asking any staff member / security that crossed our path, we had to wait another 20-30 mins at the info. While waiting, the security pressured us to leave the place. I explained to them that my friend was trying to find his phone, but that didn't seem to interest them. They weren't very polite or supportive at all. I understand that it's not an easy job to safely clear a venue with that many people, but I don't think that pressuring the guests out of the building after their belongings have been stolen is the way to go either.
Unfortunately, the phone was gone, so we left Drumsheds with mixed feelings. The lineup was great, many acts were great, seeing Pendulum x Knife party truly was a dream come true for me. But it was definitely not the experience that it should and could have been. And if we didn't had our Drumsheds Plus tickets (which basically felt like we're cheating), my résumé would probably be not very good. I'm sorry for everybody who missed their favourite act. And I can completely see why many people felt uncomfortable and unsafe at this venue.
omg... thank you for this write up...
Thank you for the write-up, and I'm sorry your international trip a UK DnB event didn't live up to the expectations you rightly had of it - I'd have been gutted in your position as I've similarly considered travelling abroad to see acts like Andromedik play (specifically for his Invites @ Antwerp Expo event). Also makes me feel for the artists, I'd seen multiple people commenting on Instagram reassuring Andromedik that the small crowd at his joint set was due to poor venue management, not his fans!
I can't promise you'll have a better experience elsewhere, but I would say that in the north of England (Manchester) we have "The Warehouse Project" (sometimes referred to simply as "WHP"), which is a comparable venue (both in size and the calibre of acts it attracts) to Drumsheds - but has been around a lot longer with a proven history for hosting large-scale events. In all the times I've been, I've never faced these kind of issues, including at the DnB Allstars event on December 13th, same day as Drumsheds UKF event I believe. So, if Pendulum do a similar kind of event here, I would look into it - although I understand this isn't an easy trip with travel and accomodation costs included.
Hell yeah NawtyNews
we need more!
0:44 Wait a fuckin minute that's the ikea I used to go to as a kid lmaoooo
Oh you mentioned it straight after 😂
Man I need to go back sometime now, hopefully the experience will be better
Me and my mates got tickets for Bristol the day they came out, then came the Drumsheds announcement and I was honestly a little sad that we'd gone with Bristol as I LOVE Pendulum and Modestep, I've especially wanted to see 'Modestep - Live' for years. But now after seeing the fallout from London, and having had a great time in Bristol, I'm so glad we stuck with it. Document seems to be a great venue, good loo situation, big ol smoking area, spacious main arena, short queues (arrived 1hr before last entry and was inside within 20 minutes max), really good sound (for once I could actually hear the MCs and vocalists mics) and ofc your surrounded by Bristol's ravers - who really seem to ooze passion for dance music.
One thing that I've not seen people bring up, is how silly it is to have a cap on the main room of your event that doesn't allow every punter to get in - when you're booking a band that sold out a 20K arena in London literally this year. Yes, you could assume that a few people are going to head the other rooms because they don't really like Pendulum, and I'm sure that happened (Flux P wasn't playing to no one) but this seems like a very obvious flaw.
That's pretty much the only thing that I'd put the blame on UKF for, especially as the Bristol event happened without any hiccups (AFAIK).
It's kind of a shame that Broadwick Live have a stronghold on these kind of events as they have the lease to basically the biggest dance-exclusive venue in London. I can't particularly think of other venues that you could host something like this at. I did actually see an old poster from a 2013 event at Ally Pally that had C&S and Knife Party headlining, the poster said it had 3 rooms so that would be roughly the same capacity as Drumsheds. Unfortuantely the sound is never particularly impressive at AP so I'm not sure it would be worth it.
(Edit) I'll say as well, in regards to security/staff, that London has THE WORST security/staff at venues compared to everywhere else in England that I've been to. Pretty sure for stuff like this all the staff are agency, and the vast majority don't give a fuck about what's going on at all and are not interested in helping you. They're just brought in for that night and are either not briefed properly, or don't take it in as they'll just be somewhere else the next weekend.
You did a beautiful job summarising the situation 👌 very correct and factual, was waiting for your take on this so much
We (a group of 4) got to Drumsheds about quarter to 8 with the early tickets.
Once we scanned and turned the corner it was a whole block of people waiting. No toilets near and it was freezing cold.
Once we finally reached security (and metal scanners that seemed pointless) who either didn't care, or were being above themselves, we were finally in after about two and a half hours. Now missed Modestep who apparently played at a almost empty stage.
A friend who was part of our group was humiliated by security because of a medical issue, and wet herself when going through security and the sniffer dog.
The handler was going on about "how he knows his dog" and pulled her aside because the dog smelt this, and she had to find her meds to support her.
Now, once we was in, getting ourselves drinks (London event prices of course) it seemed like it was getting better. Koven seemed out of place, Nero was amazing and Caspa and Rusko were perfect.
Now, the short half n hour for pendulum to get ready people left to get drinks/go to the smokers area and bloody de ja vu.. A huge crowd trying to fit through a single doorway with people trying to push through in the opposite direction to get into X room.
I'm suprised nobody got trampled or even seriously hurt because of poor planning from this.
Will definitely avoid drumsheds now.
Annoyingly it's the only big venue that does events like these to where I live.
Consider WHP if you don't mind travelling outside of London, same size events but from an established venue with a proven track record.
I was there too, and queued for nearly two hours. The queue was seriously unsafe; thousands of us just packed in like cattle with no staff at all. By the time I actually got in, the vibe was just totally killed for me. I missed most of Nero, who I was there to see above all. I stayed for Pendulum but I couldn’t bring myself to stay any longer.
Comments on the event itself aside.... 7.30 for a beer compared to U.S. prices is actually pretty reasonable (unfortunately) lol.
I’m super surprised when any substantial alcoholic beverage is below $16 in the states we’ve really become numb to it lol
He said £7.30, which is a little under $10 USD at the moment
You guys get hardcore shafted at your events, it's ridiculous.
At the Bristol event I refused to pay for the spenny drinks so my walk back to my accommodation was dehydrated torture 😭 thankfully it was a 30 minute walk but it was the most dreadful 30 minutes of my life. Couldn’t find any water stations or anything but maybe I was blind
There was jugs of water and cups at the end of the left-hand bar (as you walk into main room). Shamed you missed those man! I would've been done out if I couldn't get hydrated during that 😂
I was already jealous for everyone going there, when I saw the lineup 😅
oh this gon be good
Havent lived in the UK for a while but was at the very early UKF birthdays i forget which small venue for the 2nd or whayever with flux/gemini/doctor p etc and the next at ally pally the year after that witt modestep/C&S/pendulum etc and those nights were incredible.
Saw this lineup and thought it was incredible shame it didnt work out 😢
8:48 a 330ml beer here in finland at pretty much any event is somewhere around 10€ so around 9 quid
We've had luck to get the vip tickets and I couldn't believe how long was the regular queues.. I can't imagine waiting for 2 hours when we travelled for the event from Poland. Considering all the checkins it's a great point that no ID's was checked..
I had the same experience mate. People pissing in the queue next to me, missed half the acts I wanted to see. About 20 mins before Pendulum was about to start, the doors to room X were closed, I asked the security guard who was next to the door why they weren't letting people in he said "it's full, go to room Z". Wrong... it was fucking empty they were just queuing outside for some reason instead. To top it off the sound was fucking awful in room X.
wow guess i was lucky to get there early. i had mad fun, nero completely blew me away. lads pissing next to me in the queue was bit mad tho lmao. i also heard many peeps saying drumsheds was never that bad before w the queue, also making us choose between pendulum and flux was a bloody crime, gotta see flux another time for sure
I really hope the organizers learn from this BIG time. Especially the whole ID check not being 1st?! Here in the US its to check IDs 1st before you even step inside the club or event.
As a comparison, for the Four Tet curates event in early November, everything felt pretty smooth.
Going in, short to no queues, security were pleasant, IDs checked before any security searches, plenty of space. Still two/three tiers of searches, but it was all smooth regardless.
That crowd was also there for a variety of genres, electronica, house, techno, dubstep, grime, jungle, dnb, so I cant really comment on genre assumptions, but (other than a suprise andy C set), there want anything as "aggressive" as this one.
Also my first time at drumsheds, and everything was pretty easy to find stuff, signs were decent. Audio was a bit questionable, similar experiences with X being a bit naff but manageable for the room, Y and Z being pretty good. The biggest criticism I had, oddly, was that the visuals werent really fit for a four tet set!
I think the biggest thing I can say, is that I ended up meeting up with a guy who goes to almost every Drumsheds show since he's local and gets free tickets - talking to him, he told me that everyone there has always looked out for him and his friends. This one sounds completely different in comparison.
I flew over from Ireland for it with a mate, got my ticket scanned at 8 and like everyone else had to queue for 2 hours. The security was a joke, it was as if they just wanted to seem like they were doing something when letting people in. They opened up my wallet and took my chewing gum, patted me down for a solid minute, all to just be offered pills within 5 mins of walking into Notion and MPH's set so the extended searches were literally pointless.
I still had a great time, I wasn't drinking so didn't have to deal with the bullshit at the bars and I spent the whole night in the Y room where the sound was really good as long as you were near the rail, but it's so disappointing that an event that could have been iconic fell so flat in so many ways
best part of the night was waiting for 20 minutes for a red bull at the bar in room x 🔥🗣🔥🗣🔥🗣🔥🗣🔥🗣
For me it was paying 4.50 P for 250ml mango flavoured water to drink with did not well baked pizza :-D
I've been to Drumsheds twice this recently, for Four Tet last month and then for UKF. It was definitely overall busier for UKF, but the entry queue was definitely another level. I got there at 7:45pm and got in by around 9pm, which by the sounds of things wasn't too bad.
In replies to emails Drumsheds have said there were "enhanced security measures" in place. Honestly, I don't think there's any validity to some sort of profiling of crowd being to blame, it sounded as if they were spooked by a specific piece of info provided to them about a security threat (probably by police).
That was clearly managed poorly, but honestly I've got nothing against any of the staff on the night who seemed as frustrated as we were, and I thought the people in the queue were generally quite good-natured and calm, which may have avoided more serious and dangerous crushing happening.
Also was a real shame about the technical issues for Modestep. Drumsheds clearly isn't a great set up for live bands, as shown with the relatively poor sound for pendulum as well. Think they're planning a different London show in the near future to make up for it.
Overall was still a good night and was great to finally catch a NERO set
That's such a letdown, I remember the lineup dropping and having max FOMO. Not that any event gets an excuse but you can't afford to mess up events of that magnitude in particular
I didn't go to this event, but have been to Drumsheds 3 times this year. I'm surprised as I did not have any of these issues at any of the 3 events. Might be because they were all day events, and not as big "on paper". Sounds like a big shame though, I was sad not to be going at first!
One disappointment I had, was that UKF and Knife Party released and promoted the Bristol show the night after first, as the 'big comeback' of KP, so we bought tickets for that, and THEN the London Drum sheds was announced with Pendulum LIve and a overall much better line up 🥲 Sad to hear the London show was a let down though.
You didn’t miss much, knife party played about 2 original songs and then 90% unheard house beats😂
The fucking queue alone made me miss modestep, koven and Nero :( the main people I went for, then knife party played fucking house 😂😂😂
Knife Party???? House???? No way, what's next, they'll play Drum and Bass as Pendulum?
Just kidding, but what did you expect from them, they got huge because of House
@@Dubstone 😂 Yep they literally have released many house tunes. IDK what kind of set London got, but in Bristol Gareth played OG Dubstep, Riddim/Brostep, UKG, House, Techno, Drum & Bass.
sounds awful, being treated like cattle, being rinsed for alcohol AND there not being enough of it... Fuck that.
Yes totally agree, security was quite over the top to get in, I love being treated like an international terrorist to go and watch some music
Kinda glad I didn’t go now after hearing this, my mate went to Drumsheds when it was the Worried about Henry event and they had the exact same issues especially with the sound system
It was an actual NIGHTMARE
was hoping to go to this event, but it seems it had the same problems as Warehouse project did when I went to the nia archives event in November, very lackluster sound there as well and overcrowding to the point where we couldn't even get into the room to see 4am kru without being crushed. I think venues of this size don't focus enough on the logistics of actually creating a good space for a show and just put all their attention into booking the biggest names to draw in huge crowds for exposure.
It wasn't just the two hours to get in, it's also the letting people out between tiny barriers in groups of 50. Never had to QUEUE to get OUT of a venue before. My group were also escorted all over the site by various useless security guards. We were promised taxis from the 'artist taxi rank' as we were with an event photographer, but this taxi rank shut less than an hour after the event closed. It took another hour to get a taxi from Tesco and as a woman it felt extremely unsafe. They cared far too much about people bringing in personal portions of drugs but ACTUAL safety they couldn't give a shit!!
This was supposed to be THE event of the year for dubstep fans, but unfortunately it will be remembered for the wrong reasons.
It seems to be a prerequisite set by local councils these mega clubs, I was up at WHP in Manchester a few weeks ago and the queuing was similarly stressful albeit only 45 minutes. Being herded like cattle because they need to fulfil some type of quota/regulations for checking drugs is upsetting. I remember there being 3 dogs for 10,000 or something crazy like that. The sound really doesn't carry well over these huge rooms and trying to navigate through the crowds in the darkness from one room to another is not easy, and let's not even start with the drink prices...
It's almost the picture antithesis of the early 90's squat raves where 30,000 people would show up to a field in the middle of nowhere and have a blast. I'm not trying to be a hater since this is the music we all love but I can't help but feel when things reach a certain size and level of commercialisation that it becomes harder to enjoy since sacrifices have to be made by the organisers and venue. It's a shame since Printworks, even though it had plenty of flaws, was for the most part a great club and its successor seems completely sterile. I hope that Drumsheds can get their act together but this isn't the first time I've heard complaints of this nature, I'll probably stick to my Fabric, Troxy, Outernet, etc, and open air festivals in the future though.
It was an abomination of management🤣 all the music was incredible, and if the event had been run properly it would’ve been 10/10
6:36 is pretty much the same assumption that led to Eptic being screwed over by ministry of sound.
Another thing you didn't mention was the clear lack of experience from the bar staff. Myself and my friend who went separately, both of whom work in the hospitality industry, noticed that many of the staff members seemed to have no experience at all and it took them two people to pour one drink quite often. I had one person serve me two drinks and while they gave them to me the guy next to me said he'd ordered the same 5 minutes ago from the same person and hadn't been given them (he was right). This was what caused such huge queues at the bars
I mentioned it in the sense of them having no idea where most things were within the venue, and how they treated some of the attendees. But I didn’t have that drink experience myself or hear of it, hence why I didn’t add. Interesting coz it’s such a huge venue, to not have things like that completely on lock
Drumsheds deals with 15k people most weeks and normally it only takes half an hour to get in. Past Worried About Henry events are also sold out dnb but didn't have this problem. Disgraceful mismanagement by security
Interesting, didn’t know this
Flew in from the states for this, hoping it would have been a great destination venue akin to Printworks. Alas, it felt like it was a shambles falling apart under its own weight.
I’m so sorry!
On two occasions Drumsheds has let me down now. Andy C's night had technical issues and the UKF event was chaotic and unsafe. If an incident had occurred like the one that shut Brixton academy, there would have been far more people in danger. I will not be returning to this venue.
what are the "sniffer dogs" for?
Checking for drugs
@@Solaroid But they sucked, some man offered me pills, cocaine and MDMA several times trough the night...
People say checking for drugs but after Ariana Grande and Manchester I think they're more for weapons and explosives now
Generally they don't do anything, except make people who do have drugs overdose in the queue because they'd have enough to take over the night, which is too much to take in one go. Sniffer dogs generally increase deaths and are a massive red flag for me if any venue has them
@@karlmcdermott4363 All of the above tbh.
The fact hardly any of the acts spoke up about it speaks volumes too, especially Pendulum
It’s like the Woodstock 99 for angry dubstep and drum & bass fans this year 😂
This was my first ever rave and not a good experience. Obviously the waiting, but also for me the sound was terrible. Felt like the speakers were turned up to max without fine tuning the sound. All I could hear was the bass and ear piercing highs.
Bad experience, unfortunate that the organization was not good and neither was the sound treatment, as you well comment it seems to be that it is not taken seriously that one would expect despite being 15,000 people who attended. It is also curious that drumshed has numerous events and none of them has had such a bad organization, ukf should take responsibility and return a percentage of the money to each person who had a bad experience, otherwise the bitter feeling will not be taken away from anyone, it also strikes me that the artists do not express any discomfort even though they know what happened, that speaks very badly of the scene, they all leave a lot to be desired.
I was there and I'm usually at the back of a room at a gig but had to be literally on the front rail to have any sort of experience because the sound system was so bad. I wouldn't ever be going back to Drumsheds. If I didn't get a backstage pass and had to deal with that main queue I would 100% be taking action against them. No toilets inside is insane, the fact you had to miss 10 minutes of a set just to go to the toilet annoyed me.
Can someone explain to me what is actually happen with the UKF and Drumsheds event?
Basically, there was major organisational issues from the brand Drumsheds, with very incompetent security guards and people who were behaving REALLY bad. As a result, people who wanted to see their favourite artists have been seriously mistreated.
Some of them have been pushed, some others have been "humiliated" (according to some comments on Google), leading to total chaos.
And Drumsheds (the brand in collab with UKF) tries to wipe and delete all negative comments, closing their eyes like nothing happened. People could have been seriously injured, even killed.
(Hopefully nobody has been killed, but it left many people very disappointed by the event)
What reason did you click on this video for? 😂
@@Nawtystep sorry my bad 🤣 good video by the way
@@LynDash ahh I see, I'm more understand now,thank u
I'm not British but from my perception, UKF aren't the types of people to run events. It feels to me that their lack of experience should indicate they should hire some event leads if they wanna run more events like this.
UKF weren't running the event, I think it was Broadwick Live who were actually doing it for UKF.
@@pedro29695Ah I see, well perhaps they need a new event company
I went to a different UKF event for Netsky at Outernet and this was just as bad. Not sure why UKF go for these crappy venues and have such heavy handed staff.
what does "bass music" actually mean?
For me it incorporates any and all dark, heavy electronic music. Some would distinguish more mainstream kinds of music from others in calling it bass music. Some would say it’s mainly dubstep, drum & bass, bass house and a couple other styles. Open to interpretation really, but mostly dark, heavy forms of electronic music like I said
Yeah I find it weird that it’s always defined as a combination of genres but I only really hear people who predominantly mean modern dubstep / brostep use it
"Bass music" generalizes EDM genres that has a focus on bass, so, for examples besides the ones said, Future Bass, Speed Garage, Glitch Hop, Drum n' Bass, Bass house, Midtempo (bass), and even Moombahton.
Genuinely one of the worst queues I've ever stood in, crazy shit
DnB Allstars had nowhere near the same level of searches even though they all smashed gear and other drugs in the venue
Interesting to know!
Ehhhh you say the biggest but they've thrown like 6 events since 2010, and even companies like Shindig now help run Boomtown with Audio. So I really wouldn't say anywhere close to the biggest, more like internet famous.
The guy running UKF doesn't seem remotely business smart and you can see that over the years. I mean, claiming to have constructed the initial ''bass music'' revolution is bonkers, shit's been happening since the 70s when Disco was big. Crazy ego on the kid, must be a cokehead.
You can't deny the impact UKF and their releases have had on the culture since late 2000s. That image of the blue subwoofer is iconic.
You should have named the video "The UKF and Drumsheds situation......"
Why? I’m saying we need to talk about it because of what needs changing if it happens again, as I mention multiple times in the video
@@Nawtystep it's a meme format for youtube titles
@@_cyanawty boomer strikes again 🤓
Qualité des groupes proche de zéro ! Mauvais réglages sons ! Modestep interrompu plusieurs fois manque de son de qualité … une mauvaise gestion de la foule et des prix affolants pour les boissons ! Nous sommes venus de Belgique pour cet événement … très déçus de la qualité.
There were 8 deaths at last gig before this bicep so they ramped up but too far honestly
Surely not 8 deaths the venue would get shut down😂😂
Lie