While pre-parties are now snatching the danceheads from spring and seating them closer to the front row of summer, Sankeys hit the switch on season 2016 with its earliest ever opening party.
Off the back of a whopping winter period with Sankeys hosting a string of events, the club has become interlaced with island culture and so the crowd was a good mix of residents along with season-stayers and the first influx of holidaymakers. We had a solid line-up of Sankeys residents and guests to put our ear drums through their paces in its 12-hour session and one of the best in this line of duty was king of the basement himself, Steve Lawler. He was lying in wait for revellers as soon as they entered through the basement doors and he'd amassed a strong crowd who were getting stuck into his straightforward tech groove.
Through to the LAB and we had another crowd magnet, this time in the form of KiNK, who thanks to his live set wizardry has become a firm obsession for clubbers. KiNK's live sets, with his set up of machines and controllers being manipulated to bash out beats on the fly, are always something special and we all like to feel like we've been part of something that won't be replicated. He's a hyperactive presence when in charge and in an intimate venue space like Sankeys' LAB, his go-power was infectious, especially at the point his controller was handed down to the crowd – a moment that's a regular quirk during his sets and probably both the beginning and end to the lucky recipient's DJ career.
KiNK clocked off and after seeing Miguel Campbell step up to the booth to maintain momentum, the basement called again for a piece of Kölsch, who pumped in some absolute classics throughout what was on the whole, a high-octane tech house set. He sampled in a slice of Ricardo Villalobos' head back and eyes closed track, ‘Dexter', which was the second night on the trot hearing his brooding classic. Prince, a man who's been in the hearts and minds of millions across the globe, was the focus of a special moment with the play of ‘I Would Die 4 U', which went down a storm as soon as you could belt out “I'm not a woman, I'm not a man…”. Another massive highlight was the reeling in of Laurent Garnier's trumpet blaring ‘The Man with the Red Face' - cue the crowd pulling out their finest air trumpets.
Imaginary instruments polished and put aside, Sankeys' awakening blasted the horn to signal that we're game-on for 2016 and in its Star Wars themed quest to extend the season and push the island forward, I reckon most of us left feeling like we could handle a date with Darth Vadar over a lightsaber battle.
WORDS | Aimee Lawrence PHOTOS | David Holderbach
