Sanctuary Music Arena
 The front of the Sanctuary Music Arena | |
| Location | Milton Keynes, England |
|---|---|
| Genre(s) |
Drum and bass Dance music |
| Opened | 1991 |
| Closed | 2004 |
| Capacity | 3,500 Sanctuary; 3,000 Fastrack; 2000 Rollers |
The Sanctuary Music Arena was a 22,000 sq ft, 3,500 capacity music venue in Denbigh North, Milton Keynes in the UK.[1] It opened its doors on 6 December 1991 to ESP promotions event called Dreamscape. Its also billed as the first and only designer dance venue in the country.
The Sanctuary saw some of the UK's first legal Raves and was pivotal in the development of numerous underground electronic dance music genres, subgenres and styles.[2] The Sanctuary played host to the UK's biggest dance music promoters, including Dreamscape,[3] Helter Skelter Rave, Slammin Vinyl, The Cult,[4] Gatecrasher, Hardcore Heaven, Cream, Uproar, Sidewinder and Godskitchen. The venue attracted a national audience to its legendary 12 hour all night events.
From 1995 onwards various promoters would occasionally use the adjacent "Rollers UK" roller skating rink and the "Fastrack" go-karting area in conjunction with the Sanctuary, creating an 9,000 capacity multi arena venue, one of the largest of its kind in the country.
The Sanctuary finally closed its doors on 10 July 2004 in which Slammin Vinyl held the final event with a capacity of 12,000 (a big top arena was added, along with totally open air dance space using ground adjacent to the Sanctuary) with an event that hosted some of the best UK hardcore, Drum & Bass, Old Skool and Hard Dance DJs from across the country. Sadly this legendary venue was subsequently demolished to make way for a new IKEA store[5] as part of a development that also included the stadium mk and an Asda hypermarket.
References
- ↑ Rare footage - Sanctuary, Milton Keynes - 1997 Generation E documentary - NME retrieved 17 December 2009
- ↑ From the Dug Out and dreads to DMZ and dubstep: 10 classic club nights – The Guardian, Friday 9 December 2011
- ↑ Flyer archive for Dreamscape - includes images - hardcorewillneverdie.com (retrieved 17 December 2009)
- ↑ The Cult at The Sanctuary on 17 December 1994 - Last.fm
- ↑ Facebook rave staged in IKEA The Sun 2 September 2008 - retrieved 17 December 2009
Coordinates: 52°00′20″N 0°43′50″W / 52.00556°N 0.73056°W