It’s hard to believe that it’s been a whole year since I stood almost exactly in this position waiting to be let into Sasha and Locodice at the opening weekend of last year’s Warehouse Project. The Warehouse Project once again returns to Manchester with a point to prove. The line-ups boast a mouth-watering range of talent which well represents the current state of dance music, just glancing at the headliners on the events page is enough to send shivers up your spine – Swedish House Mafia, Deadmau5, Hawtin & Magda, Tiga, Dubfire, La Roux, the list goes on. Not only are the headliners impressive, but there’s a huge array of talent further down the bill – Jamie Jones, Fake Blood, Breakbot, Autokratz and Seth Troxler to name but a few.

Walking round the corner onto Store Street brings back that familiar feeling of excitement and anticipation. Two of the three founders of The Warehouse Project, Sasha and Kirsty are stood at the door overseeing the evening’s proceedings what a great feeling it must be to have people flocking to your events from all over the country. Guys – I salute you.
As we edge closer to the door that familiar brain-mangling bass can be heard pumping through the walls, people are everywhere, clambering to get in. It seems commonplace tonight to try and gain access without a ticket or guest list place – props to Kirsty on the door who put up a great fight against tens of lads trying to sweet talk their way in.

As we walk in it’s easy to see the changes that have been made since last year– Ice Cannons line the walls of the main dance floor, piercing green lasers shoot across the room from all angles but even better it seems the sound system has been upgraded, now enough to fill every cavern, keeping everyone dancing maniacally by the furthest speaker stack as though there it was the centre of the dance floor. After queuing at the bar for what seemed like eternity it was nearly time for headliners Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso to take to the stage, from the ever increasing crowd it seems I was not the only one that has seen the set times. We managed to squeeze in under one of the caverns stage-right, a perfect little viewing spot it would appear. Now SHM aren’t usually my cup of tea but from what I’ve heard, seeing them perform is a different story. People all around me are amped like I’ve never seen before, and as the sweet brassy intro of ‘Valodja’ kicks in my doubts were soon blown away, the crowd surge and it appears to be go-time. Banging through their set with seemingly no mercy, they pump out crowd pleasers like ‘Bonkers’, Temper Trap (Axwell remix& Dirty South Remix) and an inspiring remix of Coldplay’s ‘Clocks’. The intro to Temper Traps – ‘Sweet Disposition’ (Axwell & Dirty South Remix) sends the crowd into hyperspace, arms were firmly in the air and I doubt there was a single person in the place who wasn’t dancing. The Ice Cannons shoot much needed cool air onto the crowd along with reams of confetti. It’s moments like this that make me realise why The Warehouse is such a great party and make me thankful for the fact it’s in Manchester, it couldn’t be anywhere else. By now Angello & Ingrosso are well into their set and by my watch it’s 03:15 and they were meant to finish at 3, I didn’t see anyone complaining.

As their set drew to a close the crowd don’t seem to want to let them go, and with that familiar ‘Show me Love’ intro filtering through the speakers it seems they’re not ready to go just yet. They give it their last 5 minutes, the crowd go wild and 2/3 of Swedish House Mafia call it a night, making way for Toolroom’s Mark Knight who takes the decks like a duck to water keeping the crowd dancing seamlessly to Skream’s ‘Lets Get Ravey Remix’ of La Roux. It’s time for me to call it a night, but from what I’ve heard from numerous sources, Mark Knight continued to keep the crowd dancing well into the early hours.

If this is only the opening week then I am well and truly unable to wait for what The Warehouse Project has in store for me over the coming months. Watch this space because there’s plenty more to come………