Club Review: Welcome to The Warehouse @ The Warehouse Project, 6/04/12

The Warehouse Project's first night in their new home saw Axwell, Eric Prydz and John Digweed top an epic line-up of global proportions. Chris White braves the Good Friday crowds to check it out.

Jayne Robinson

Date published: 12th Apr 2012

Friday 6th April saw the opening night of The Warehouse Project at its new Trafford Park home. With the location of the new venue only being revealed to the public a week before, anticipation of what to expect was high to say the least.

A bulging international DJ line-up and a venue nearly three times the size of Store Street… surely this would go one of two ways; a night to go down in history, or over-ambitious chaos.

I’m quite sure I wasn’t the only person who has a little difficulty finding the venue. On a traditional dark, gloomy, wet Manchester evening, it seemed a little hidden away. A predictably huge queue, plenty of lovely rain (and therefore mud); it was a scramble to get in. At 10pm the party had been going for three hours already, and it could have been the early hours judging by the atmosphere. Entry is via the smoking area, which is largely uncovered and lined by portaloos. Given the level of development which has gone into the site, this area certainly felt like an after-thought, which was unfortunate.

You first enter the main ‘hub’, leading off to bar areas, toilets, cloakroom, and clubbing rooms two and three. At first this made precisely no sense at all: cue a lot of ‘crowd flowing’ as you get your bearings.

Looking back this layout does actually work, and is easy to remember. We headed straight to the quieter bar areas, drawn by the deep house and techno emitting from room two at the back. The back area is very dark, but this adds perfectly to the industrial, underground atmosphere. The likes of John Digweed, Joris Voorn, and Nic Fanciulli provided truly faultless sets of cracking tech-house; as you got lost in the music it was easy to forget you weren’t in a stand-alone club. Having clocked 11.30pm as the time to head towards Room One to catch the end of James Zabiela leading into Eric Prydz, we began our move...

Photo: Joseph T Denyer

It’s hard to remain realistic about where you are when herded through tight corridors amongst a throng of party-goers. In such a ginormous venue you’re obviously going to experience difficulty moving between areas, that’s a given. To expect anything else is unfair. However, by the third or fourth mission it does get more than a little tiring. But finally, we made it to Room One.

First, the positives. The scale is truly incredible. Most definitely the biggest clubbing space I’ve ever witnessed; this felt more like a festival for sure. The lighting, consisting of laser displays and LED screens behind the DJ area, is breathtaking. Each of the headline acts put on a blinding set, working the crowds into an absolute frenzy. I was unsure of what to expect from Eric Prydz, having found his sets to become a tad dulled down and repetitive in the past, but tonight he redeemed himself completely. Pulling out a real mixed bag of electro house bangers, he stole the show for me. Axwell was also excellent, a modern set with plenty of audience interaction. The relentless ‘Manchester...are you ready?’ sound bites at the beginning – unreal!

Photo (& main): Sebastian Matthes / Manox_net

Now for the negatives. The heat in the main room was almost unbearable any closer than about a quarter of the way in. There must surely be a way to improve ventilation towards the front, as this will surely hamper future shows. And with such a massive increase in size and capacity, it's inevitable that some of that WHP magic has given way to a mass market appeal that was evident in some of the clientele.

Of course this is to be expected, and the magic will hopefully come back over time as tweaks are made and lessons learnt. Such a massive increase in scale has inevitably turned The Warehouse Project into a more generic clubbing experience. Having said that, to carry off such an event is truly impressive. None of the issues highlighted are un-fixable, and I’m ecstatic to have witnessed such an incredible musical line-up.

The addition of a chill-out seated area at the very back of the venue is also more than welcome. Drink prices (from what I remember) were reasonable; under £2 for bottled water, under £4 for a can of lager.

I would absolutely recommend The Warehouse Project as a spectacular clubbing experience; it’s surely the closest you’ll get to an indoor festival/Ibiza style night out in the UK. As hard work as parts of the night were, the overriding feeling was: ‘WOW’. Manchester clubbing has well and truly been pushed on to a global scale.

My advice? Navigate your way around the venue expertly, plan your moves well in advance, and do NOT wear your best shoes.