Sanctuary Music Arena
Encyclopedia
The Sanctuary Music Arena was a 22,000 sq ft, 3,500 capacity music venue in Denbigh North
, Milton Keynes
in the UK
. It opened its doors on December 6, 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. The Sanctuary played host to the UK's biggest dance music promoters, including Dreamscape, Helter Skelter Rave
, Slammin Vinyl, The Cult, Gatecrasher
, Hardcore Heaven, Cream
, Uproar, Sidewinder and Godskitchen
. The venue attraced 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 as part of a development that also included the stadium:mk and an Asda
hypermarket.
Denbigh North
Denbigh is a district in Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire, England, to the north of Fenny Stratford and on the eastern side of the West Coast Main Line and Bletchley proper. It is in the civil parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford and is generally regarded as part of Bletchley...
, Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It opened its doors on December 6, 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. The Sanctuary played host to the UK's biggest dance music promoters, including Dreamscape, Helter Skelter Rave
Helter Skelter Rave
Helter Skelter are one of the longest running dance music promoters in the UK. They are one of the few remaining rave music brands who promote early underground styles of electronic dance music, as opposed to the more mainstream house clubs that followed during the 1990s.-History:The organization...
, Slammin Vinyl, The Cult, Gatecrasher
Gatecrasher
Gatecrasher is an international clubbing brand made famous by the Gatecrasher dance music events held at the Gatecrasher One nightclub in Sheffield, England during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The event received awards such as "Club Of The Year" at the Ericsson Muzik Magazine Dance Awards in...
, Hardcore Heaven, Cream
Cream (nightclub)
Cream, based at the Nation nightclub in Liverpool, is one of the best-known night clubs in the UK. Cream began life as a weekly house music night at Nation, and ran in this format for 10 years, from October 1992 to June 2002...
, Uproar, Sidewinder and Godskitchen
Godskitchen
Godskitchen is an international superclub brand which is associated with dance music and organises events, particularly in the UK and US. The company runs a club night of the same name at their nightclub AIR, in Birmingham, England and has an in-house music label...
. The venue attraced 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
Roller skating
Roller skating is the traveling on smooth surfaces with roller skates. It is a form of recreation as well as a sport, and can also be a form of transportation. Skates generally come in two basic varieties: quad roller skates and inline skates or blades, though some have experimented with a...
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
UK hardcore
UK Hardcore is a broad term to describe the evolved sound of Happy Hardcore Rave music which emerged around the end of the 1990s and grew in strength during the 21st century...
, Drum & Bass, Old Skool
Old school hip hop
Old school hip hop describes the earliest commercially recorded hip hop music , and the music in the period preceding it from which it was directly descended . Old school hip hop is said to end around 1983 or 1984 with the emergence of Run–D.M.C., the first new school hip hop group...
and Hard Dance
Hard dance
Hard Dance is an umbrella term that refers to a group of Hard electronic dance genres which aren't hard enough to be classified as hardcore. The term usually includes genres such as Hard House, Hard NRG, Hard Trance, and Hardstyle...
DJs from across the country. Sadly this legendary venue was subsequently demolished to make way for a new IKEA
IKEA
IKEA is a privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories. The company is the world's largest furniture retailer...
store as part of a development that also included the stadium:mk and an Asda
Asda
Asda Stores Ltd is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, , Asda Mobile...
hypermarket.