Why is Drumsheds so goddamn sweaty?
I’m standing in the Y Room, Drumsheds’ second room, and the sweat is rolling off me. It’s hot. Like really hot. And I’m beginning to really need a glass of water.
Why is Drumsheds so goddamn sweaty?
The brief contact I make with my compatriots to my sides feels slick with everyone’s arms wet to the touch. The music thunders overhead with Mall Grab and Salute back to back behind the decks spinning tune after tune. I look around and see that I’m not the only one struggling in the heat. People are panting and fanning out their shirts, I glimpse bottles of water changing hands and some even wringing out their hair.
I can’t take much more of this and signal to my friends that I need to step out, a number voice their agreement and we stumble outside, gasping as the blissfully cool air fills our lungs. We immediately make a beeline for the water fountains.
Club Saunas
This isn’t the first time I’ve had complaints about the temperatures in clubs recently. Whilst temperature isn’t exactly the most important aspect of a venue, it is noticeable when it’s not right. Cutting shapes for four or more hours is a pretty strenuous activity and my smart watch loves to tell me that I’ve “had a good workout” after an event, so I can only imagine how much heat I’m producing on the dancefloor. And couple this with alcohol consumption and you’re basically on the express train to Dehydration Central.
Usually this is easily mitigated with nearly all clubs offering free water to thirsty ravers. However, when the temperature is up, then the sweating is exacerbated and the queues for the water can be insane. I remember Printworks being a victim of this, with one central water fountain to the left of the old bar near the Printing Hall having queues that could stretch to 10+ minutes.
Drumsheds is quickly becoming one of those hot clubs for me. The previous time I went in November to see Camelphat, I distinctly remember feeling a bit too warm in the X Room. I was surprised at the time thinking that surely this colossal space would help keep the dancers cool, that there’s no way that we could heat the space just with our body heat. But I was wrong. A friend corroborated this when she went to the Worried About Henry event a few weekends prior and could see water dripping off of her hair.
Gross.
Pickle Factory is infamous amongst my friends and I for being another sweat box, however it’s almost fitting for the club seeing as it’s a much smaller space. Personally, I didn’t mind the heat in there as it was very easy to step outside to the smoking area which was only several metres from the main dance floor. You didn’t have to snake around the one way systems Drumsheds has in place for crowd control just to get to the “lobby” between the rooms and then march several hundred metres to the old lorry depot to get outside. If the outside is within easy reach, then personally I don’t have much of an issue with temperature.
But at the Hydra event I was at on Easter weekend, it was a sell out event with people wall to wall inside. Getting out of the Y Room during the aforementioned b2b set took a solid 5 minutes of snaking our way through the crowd, apologising all the way.
KOKO’s reputation could be said to be the opposite of Pickle Factory’s in our group. One friend immediately details how perfect the temperature is in there when talking about the place.
“Not too hot, not too cold” he always says. “Perfect”.
And he makes a good point. In all the times I’ve visited my beloved theatre-rave I never once noticed the temperature in there and in a way that’s exactly what you want from a venue. It would have been an added distraction from the music. Fortunately for the venue this works well with its smoking area which is probably one of the least accessible I’ve witnessed in my life requiring 4 flights of staircases to reach. This aids KOKO’s reputation for me and I always look forward to any KOKO event I’ve booked.
The night before this fateful day at Drumsheds I found myself at Alexandra Palace to see Hybrid Minds. It was my first time visiting the legendary venue and I was in awe of the space inside. The ceiling towered 50 metres overhead and the length was similar to that of a football pitch. As gigs go it was an unreal experience.
Even if it was another sweaty one.
Now I’m not sure how our bodies heated this space too, but it certainly did. I fortunately had brought a vest top underneath my shirt and was reduced down to that just to try and cool down. A friend of mine with me had less luck and I remember turning around to witness a very topless man next to me. Usually I’m against men (it’s always men) taking their tops off in the club but as we made eye contact that night I just nodded and admitted “fair enough”. I would have definitely done the same.
Back to Drumsheds
Standing outside in the Drumsheds smoking area, cups of water are being handed around, emptied, refilled, then emptied again as we all desperately try to cool down. Looking at myself, the formerly white t-shirt I have on has this light yellow staining that I was dreading to have to get out in the wash.
“Not sure I can go back in there” someone mentions. “Shall we try the X Room instead?”
Nods are issued over cups raised to parched lips. “Yeah Bonobo is on soon”.
Little did I know that the furnaces were ablaze in there too.
About halfway through Bonobo’s set, I look at the sheer size of the place. Close to a hundred metres across and twenty high, I think to myself “How on earth is it this hot in here”. Whilst better than the Y Room, it’s still far too warm to be properly comfortable. Bonobo’s set list is fortunately of the more relaxed variety, with his familiar organic downtempo sound slowing the crowd to a gentle bopping motion compared to the more frantic dancing variety I witnessed in the Y Room.
So I make my plea to Drumsheds, please install air conditioning, or windows. I love you but this relationship is getting me uncomfortably hot under the collar.
I’m still trying to get the yellow stains out of that shirt.
Very true, was dripping like a knackered fridge in Drumsheds