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| London Zoo -
Penge Party / Miss Moneypennys / Carwash |
Date:
Saturday 28th June 2003
Address: London Zoo, Regent's Park, London,
NW1 4RY
Occurrence: One-Off
Hours: 7pm – 3am
Ticket Price: £50
Dress Code: Jungle Jane's
and GI Joe's, Animal Print, Fake Fur & Fluff
Genre: Funky House
Capacity: TBC |
Main
Room: Jim 'Shaft' Ryan, Chrispee, Jason Lorimar
+ Charlie Angel, Rob Marmott, Jenny Harrison
Musicians: Ricky Rude,
Carl on Sax & Friends
Room Two: Cosmic, Rubber
Ron, Kid Blaze, Back 2 Basics (Funky4U) |
Parties in unusual venues
are often a good laugh. Three years into the new
millennium and it’s not unusual nowadays to
see promoters booking luxury hotels, countryside
stately homes and massive inner city warehouses
that are often transformed into luxurious and vibrant
entertainment centers for a night of fun. Well,
when I received my invite to a joint party by Penge,
Miss Moneypennys and Carwash I was intrigued. When
I discovered their choice of venue, no less than
London Zoo in Regents Park, I was more than intrigued
- I was damn right excited.
Escape the urban jungle and seek refuge with us
at London Zoo, read the invitation and so me and
a group of friends jumped into a taxi on Saturday
night and told the slightly bemused driver to take
us down to the zoo. “Going to see your relatives
are you?” and “Don’t forget to
feed the monkeys” were just some of the jibes
we had to put up with on our journey into town,
but he soon stopped joking when he saw the queue
outside.
Looking down at the invite I saw that it specified
a dress code of “Animal Prints, fake fur &
fluff, along with Jungle Jane's and GI Joe's.”
And in the queue there were many who had followed
it to the letter. Giving my cab driver his fare
I hastily joined the queue, joining up behind a
group of girls in skimpy leopard spotted bikinis
who kept me entertained until we gained swift entrance
to the party where we were initially presented with
a beautiful sweeping lawn with people mingling,
socialising and sipping on champagne.
Now many clubbers reading this review may initially
be put off by the price of admission to this party.
Fifty quid seems a bit steep for a Saturday night
out in London. But when you take into account the
luxurious and exotic choice of venue, it begins
to make some sense. When you add to this a free
bar licensed to serve alcohol till 2am it suddenly
becomes extremely good value.
Inside the main function room, which was held on
the third floor of a beautifully designed building
with luxurious chill out areas and restrooms, you
could party to your hearts content, and whenever
you needed a drink a short visit to the bar quenched
your thirst without ever needing to reach into your
pocket and dig around for cash.
With such freedom we began to get into the spirit
of things. The main dance floor was brightly lit
and the sound system was fantastic. The venue was
packed and everyone had really made an effort with
their attire. The guys looked really cool and the
girls sexy. I found it really easy to talk with
people and everyone was full of good spirits. Quite
a few people had just returned from Ibiza where
they had visited the opening parties. It was good
to hear what was going on over there and I’m
looking forwards to my visit later on in the summer.
Moneypennys are Birmingham promoters and it seemed
like quite a few of our northern friends had made
the journey down south to party with us. The mixture
of the north/south clubbing fraternity really worked
well and the atmosphere was one full of smiles and
good cheer.
Upstairs in the main room the DJ’s were mixing
the latest in Funky House and downstairs the tunes
were R&B and soul. The musical mixture was just
right and fitted the mood and the vibe of the evening.
There wasn’t a single bit of attitude from
anyone all night and as far as I know nobody got
fed to the lions.
At 3am the festivities ended but many continued
on to an after party held somewhere in Kings Cross.
I say somewhere because even though I attended,
by this stage of the night things began to get a
little blurred. After my umpteenth vodka & tonic
though I could hardly be blamed for this!
I didn’t hang around for long but suffice
to say the venue was really packed and I’m
told by my friends that it went well onto the early
hours of the morning.
This is the third such collaboration
held by these three promoters this year and I hear
they have a few more planned in the pipeline. For
those of you who love their clubbing dressy, funky
and friendly I suggest your keep your eyes open
for the invites to the next one. |
Venue: 9
Music: 9
Crowd: 9
Sound System: 10
Total: 37 / 40
Rating: Gold Award |
| Review written by:
Tommy Tornari |
tommy@uk-cl.co.uk |
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