Planet Angel, 12th September

If you like raving (techno/house/drum n bass), and you’re not an asshole, you would love Planet Angel. Planet Angel has been going for over a decade, yet remained slightly under the radar, having been set up in 1999 by a couple of friends who wanted to create something that was fun, creative and positive. They put on their first event to about 100 people and since then they have been putting on parties, relying solely on word of mouth to spread their message of friendly, inclusive hedonism and hoping that this will help them maintain and attract the right kind of people. It seems to be working.

They’ve thought about all the kinds of things that make a night out clubbing fun and special and have tried to include them, cultivating a place with no attitude, unless that attitude is about dancing and enjoying yourself. So, they have rooms pumping all sorts of music you would want to rave to – psy-trance, techno, house, trance, drum n bass, and on top of this, they have chill out areas where you can play around with some plasticine, meddle with some lego, or even have a recreational moment of Connect Four, Tic Tac Toe or Jenga (all giant versions of course). 

So. Much. Lego.

Planet Angel also want to look after you, to be sure you have the best night you can have. Flagging a little and need something to perk you up? Why not have one of their herbal teas, or get a toastie in their little kitchen? Or you can simply wait until 2 am when they have stewards wending through the crowd handing out refreshing grapes and berries (at 2 am after some hard dancing, trust me, a grape never tasted so good). 

They also had, at the one I went to (at Fire), some fun touches in and amongst the dancing – someone was drawing a mural of the dancers on the floor in UV paint, while in another room you were invited to graffiti over a designated piece of wall, and they had massive glowing UV butterflies looming over the dance floor. And not to mention the free face painting available, and the space hoppers that suddenly appeared. 

And best of all were the lovely people dancing their assess off, chatting and playing games outside, a lot of whom had clearly been coming for years. There’s a bit of a community here, and in the alternative nightlife world in general that I have tapped into with my Meetup, and it’s welcoming and friendly and non-judgmental and I encourage anyone for whom this sounds like the ideal way of life to go to their next event and see what it’s all about.