‘El Grande’ at The Colesseum, Nine Elms Lane, Vauxhall, London is a regular monthly event run by SalsaRepublic – www.salsarepublic.co.uk – and this event had its 3rd Anniversary in April 2007.
Salsa Republic have events every week in Vauxhall – 1 big event monthly at The Colesseum and the other 3 weeks of the month they have a smaller scale event next door at Bar Rez.
Entrance at The Colesseum is £10 and classes run from 9.45pm, with dancing until 3.30am. Security Staff check your bags on arrival as at some other events. After you have paid in the lobby you can make use of the cloak room which costs £2 per item. There are generally 4 classes of different styles and levels, with up to 5 teachers, and music is played by up to 6 different DJ's.
This is another event with a 4 room format – Main Salsa Room / Cuban Room / Mambo Room / Chill-Out Room. Inside, the building has lots of comfortable seating areas which are great for when you want to sit and relax or chat for a while. In the passageways between the rooms there is also more seating to be found. This gets the thumbs up from me, as at many events there is little opportunity to actually sit and take a breather with a drink. The seating doesn’t take away any dancefloor space, so its there if you need it, and doesn’t get in the way if you don’t.
Each room has its own bar and I didn’t have to wait to be served at any of the bars all night. Prices are a little on the expensive side though, but not really enough to be an issue.
The Main Salsa Room is the largest of the 4 rooms, though I believe there is a larger room upstairs which is only opened for bigger events. The sound system in the main room is awesome and you could really feel the bass pumping inside your ribcage, though having said that, I never felt that it was too loud. In the Main Salsa Room there was a great mix of music and styles being played by the different DJ’s, including some Bachata and Merengue.
The Cuban Room is also a good size and again has a great sound system, and the different DJ’s in this room also played some great tracks. Dancing in the Cuban Room went on until about half an hour before the end, at which point everyone left in there moves into the Main Room.
I visited the smaller Mambo Room a couple of times, but there were never more than about 10 people in there so I didn’t stay. When I did go in though, the music was good, but ironically the people I saw dancing in there were doing Cuban.
I didn’t get chance to go into the Chill Out Room, but from what I saw passing by the door, it seemed to be mostly seating, and there were quite a few people sitting and chatting in there.
There were a couple of Shows in the Main Room which were worth watching. However, my friends, who were in the Cuban Room at the time, missed out on the Shows and the raffle because they were not informed in the Cuban Room that there were Shows going on. They were disappointed that they missed the Shows, so I think that to give everyone the opportunity of seeing the Shows if they so wish, then some kind of announcement should be made in each of the rooms, so that no-one misses out if they don’t want to.
The fact that another room carried on playing whilst the Shows were on is good in one way, because if you are not interested in the Shows, then you can at least carry on dancing, but a simple announcement would be good.
This was my first visit to The Colesseum and I was really impressed, and had a fantastic night. It was busy without being too packed, the dancefloors were good, sound system great and some fab music was played. It gets my vote for having the Cuban Room and I also love that fact that there are different rooms to choose from.
It’s great to have variety and being able to move from one room to another for a change of scenery, people and music is a real bonus.
The rooms are all modern looking with a great clubby feel and atmosphere, and good lighting systems too. I had been warned that it gets uncomfortably hot at this venue, but I didn’t find heat to be a problem – it didn’t seem any hotter than at other salsa venues, although it may be a different story in the summer months or when it is very busy.
It was an all-round great night with something to keep everyone happy – my only complaint was the finish time of 3.30am – I was still up for partying some more ;o)
