Drumsheds London reviews by real event-goers

Review of 15 Years of UKF presents Pendulum LIVE

Review of 15 Years of UKF presents Pendulum LIVE

Review of 15 Years of UKF presents Pendulum LIVE

Absolutely awful organisation for this event. It took two hours to get in, treated like cattle with no access to water / toilets and everyone crammed in. Felt super unsafe. Security and staff were more interested in gossiping / laughing with each other than actually doing their job and letting people in. Only ONE entry lane for a 15,000 person event is a joke

Avoid

Review of 15 Years of UKF presents Pendulum LIVE

Total s**t venue. Waited for almost two hours in line before getting in. They tried to get 15k people in by a 4m gate. Organization wise a total s**t show. Wrong crowd control inside the venue to get in and out the mainstage.

Show was great

Review of 15 Years of UKF presents Pendulum LIVE

Crazy cue timings and to use the loo was crazy! Unfortunately spoilt the experience for me. But music was brilliant and venue was cool

Review of 15 Years of UKF presents Pendulum LIVE

Crazy cue timings and to use the loo was crazy! Unfortunately spoilt the experience for me. But music was brilliant and venue was cool

Review of 15 Years of UKF presents Pendulum LIVE

Getting people into the venue absolute joke. 3 hours like sardines no stewards thankfully not raining. Missed Modestep. Very disappointing 😞

Review of 15 Years of UKF presents Pendulum LIVE

The queue system was ridiculous, and the toilets were very few and over used. I counted 5 urinals in one area that was so over used it was over flowing onto people's feet and clothing. (I have videos and photos of this if anyone wants to view them). Seems like they are very very under prepared for the amount of 15,000 attendees.

But other than that the sound system was brilliant, amazing atmosphere and a big space.

Review of 15 Years of UKF presents Pendulum LIVE

This was the worst venue I've ever been to for an event. 2 hours of queuing to even get in, with no security, water or toilets meaning people were having to urinate in public! We missed half the acts we wanted to see due to this. Once inside the queues were even worse, out of the full line up we managed to see one full set. It was seriously dangerous to the point we had to leave before the headliners even came on. We've emailed drumsheds for a refund

Review of 15 Years of UKF presents Pendulum LIVE

Review of 15 Years of UKF presents Pendulum LIVE

Review of Upperground

Review of 15 Years of UKF presents Pendulum LIVE

Dangerous queue layout and fencing with multiple crush points and bottlenecks that never should have been signed off by licensing, excessively slow (and mostly purely performative, rude, and pointless) entry searches added to the crowd crush situation outside. It took us two and a quarter hours to get in. We had to stand in and shuffle through multiple rivers of urine.

Poor signage and crowd management layout once inside, we’d already missed all but two of the artists we wanted to see, and our feet were frozen. To kill what little hope for the evening remained, the sound was appallingly weak for Pendulum, and we weren’t allowed back upstairs to see Knife Party after going to the toilet (why?!)

The barstaff got my one order of five drinks wrong (which essentially meant they overcharged me), and handed me an empty cup instead of the shot that was part of my order, then claimed they were “out of Jager” when questioned about it despite multiple, not empty bottles being clearly visible behind them.

Just to really kick everyone while they were down from a horrendous ordeal, we were stuck fenced in again for 45 minutes while leaving.

Will be asking for a full refund tomorrow when your live chat team are back in office.

Review of 15 Years of UKF presents Pendulum LIVE

Queue to enter through security was diabolical, takes less time to enter a major music festival. Took 1hr 45 minutes from scanning my ticket to when I actually entered the venue.

Crowd management was terrible, with people being crushed while trying to enter the main room because whoever was managing the doors only had one double door open.

Music quality was great, along with the artists themselves. Drinks prices are what you would expect from London.

The crowd and atmosphere was great despite the overcrowding issues.

Review of Drumsheds

Attended UKF on December 13th, this was the worst experience I have had. We queued for over an hour to get in in conditions that were completely unsuitable- no toilets (I saw one man resort to using an empty bottle) water, or easy way for people to access help if anything went wrong. The rest of the night was more queuing- queuing to get outside, queuing to get inside, queuing to go outside then back inside to see the heading act as the main entrance to the X room got closed off. Not to mention the sound issues- sound kept cutting out for some of the acts. If you like waiting around and not seeing any of the acts you want to see, I’d recommend this place. However, if you want to listen to music and get your money’s worth, avoid.

Review of Drumsheds

New security contractor (FGH) needs to be sacked!!!

Rude, threatening, confused and lazy staff throughout the venue. Whilst I appreciate that this was a busy night and staff are put under pressure by the huge crowds, I didn’t come across a single member of staff who pulled their finger out and did their job professionally.

Main room audio awful. Complete sound dropouts for up to 15 seconds during modestep performance. Every good drop they performed, including most of their super hit ‘Sunlight’ was met by a complete audio visual shut down giving everyone massive blueballs/disappointment. Not the performers fault at all.

This is an indoor venue which is suitable to be air conditioned, easily. I think it actually has air conditioning installed. Of course, it was extortionately hot in drumsheds- an inferno in the main room. At a small cost this venue could increase its safety massively for anyone attending by turning the damn a/c on.

Drop some portaloos in the queue area for f**ks sake. 10,000 humans + 2.5 hours = lots of people needing to go. What a massive oversight of basic human needs.

Left the main room after Nero’s wicked set to try and find some oxygen and grab a cup of water. Came back for pendulum’s set which unfortunately was full. I don’t expect the venue to fit its entire capacity in the main room so it is what it is.
The issue lied in the FGH security staff working on behalf of drumsheds who failed to offer basic information or directions when they sealed off the entrance to the room. This led to a huge crowd gathering and trying to get closer to the door, with only a couple security standing at the door. What would have saved this dangerous, high risk crush is if security staff were dispersing the crowd and informing ticket payers that their main stage is unfortunately full and to move on to another room/smoking area. It’s clear that risk assessments at drumsheds are just brushed aside and lazily completed to meet regulations.

Luckily, UKF 15 attracted a more mature crowd than what I’ve seen there before. If a younger crowd turned up last night, there would have been a much worse outcome from the night.

My moan off is in no way aimed at the performers at the UKF15 event, the lineup and sets were excellent.


I’ve been here in early 2024, I had a great time then. This event was a massive fail on the venue’s behalf i.m.o.

Review of 15 Years of UKF presents Pendulum LIVE

A very dangerous situation occurred with unacceptable herding and waiting times to enter the venue
A crowd surge was making people anxious for their own safety and waiting 1hour 50minutes to get in
Clearly Drumsheds capacity of 15,000 is unmanageable and ridiculous in a old furniture warehouse which does not have the correct infrastructure for such large events safely

Review of Drumsheds

1hr 50 mins to get in. Sexist security when. Searched. Nedd the toilet? Plan to miss 15mins of an act by the time you get to them and back to the rooms. Terrible bar staff. One way systems that changed constantly. Main room closed off for 30mins for main act, room was not even full. (we popped out for 5 mins to grab a beer, couldn't get back in even though the room was knowhere near full when we left). Queues to get out, narrow barriers on the footpaths outside of the venue still being controlled by their security. Appalling.

Review of Drumsheds

This place is getting worse by the minute.
Last time there were no lights and the music went out with on apologies or explanations and yesterday it took us an hour and a half to get in and when we did get in there were only about 60 people in there.
We went to the bar in the main room but they were still setting up. What were they doing whilst we stood outside for an hour and a half. I won't be rushing back.

Review of Drumsheds

It took me 1.5 hours to get in to UKF15 and by the time I did the venue was barely a quarter full and we had missed several acts we wanted to see. How do Drumsheds expect to get 15,000 people through the doors in 2.5 hours? Especially when there are only around 40 security staff searching people and doing so at a painfully slow pace. Prices of drinks are outrageous, but that's a given. WARNING! Do NOT stay until the end of the event as you will be stuck in an hour queue to leave. Leave 30 mins early. However there are some good points: the music was incredible, sound system in the main room is good (and it's nice and spacious and airy) and there are a ginormous number of toilets. For me it was worth it overall for the music but the crowds are poorly managed. The events need to be opened extra early with some warm up acts to allow more time to get people in before the main acts begin to play so people don't miss out because they're stuck in a queue.