Sanctuary Music Arena

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. It was 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] Owned by Tony Rosenberg, The Sanctuary played host to the UK's biggest dance music promoters, including Dreamscape,^[3] Helter Skelter Rave, Jungle Fever, Slammin Vinyl, Gatecrasher, Hardcore Heaven, Cream, Slinky, Uproar, Sidewinder and Godskitchen. The venue attracted a national audience to its legendary 12-hour all night events.

As well as Dance Music events, several high profile live music acts appeared at The Sanctuary, including The Cult,^[4] The Prodigy, Ocean Colour Scene, Brand New Heavies, Gary Numan, and Paul Weller.

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 a 9,000 capacity multi arena venue, one of the largest of its kind in the country.

The Sanctuary's owner also partnered the venues main promoter for one of the earliest legal outdoor all night dance events "Dreamscape 20" held in 1995 at Brafield in Northamptonshire with event attendance reaching 20,000. This was followed in 1997 with "Helter Skelter Energy 97" held at Turweston Aerodrome in Northamptonshire with 16,000 up for it ravers in attendance.

The close association of Rave with drug culture resulted in the public entertainment license of The Sanctuary being challenged several times. Generally the local council and in particular Milton Keynes Licensing were supportive as were Thames Valley Police, with the owner working alongside the authorities introducing harm minimisation for "ravers" (including drinking water fountains and on-site paramedic teams with private ambulances) but with parallel strong policing trying to prevent the sale of illegal substances within the venue.

Through a Police challenge to The Sanctuary license in 1997, the owner sought the assistance of the then MP for Milton Keynes South Dr. Phyllis Starkey, bringing to the attention of the MP the issues of licensing and in particular, the need for regulated door and event security ("bouncers"). This subsequently led to Dr. Starkey's Private Members Bill to Parliament in 1998 which although unsuccessful, eventually persuaded the Government to introduce the Private Security Industry Act 2001 leading to the formation of the Security Industry Authority in 2003.

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 and fun fair 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.

See also

• Media related to Sanctuary Music Arena at Wikimedia Commons
• List of electronic dance music venues

References

Coordinates: 52°00′20″N 0°43′50″W / 52.00556°N 0.73056°W / 52.00556; -0.73056