COMMUNITY NEWS
30 years of Lakota
12
written by George Dunn
Last week I was fortunate enough to have been in attendance for two of Lakotas' 30th birthday celebrations. From a personal perspective, it is definitely safe to say that for the majority of these years, a remarkable proportion of my most epically memorable experiences involving Electronic Party-Music have been forged either within its walls or, on occasion, those of the adjacent 'Coroners Court' building and during more recent times, the exceptional and extensive outdoor Party-Space which was created in response to the considerable challenges presented by The End Of Days.
Thirty years ago, thanks to the enterprising vision of the Burgess family, this alluring historical building was woken from its slumber after the slightly macabre and intriguing various half-forgotten histories of its previous lives as an Operating Theatre and a Slaugherhouse and such things, to become the internationally legendary Music Venue that it is today. Many have been the awesome Party-Spaces which have come and gone in Bristol during its lifetime as we know and love it, but few if any could be reckoned to have given so much to so many for so long.
It has been for so many people during these three entire decades an essential space within which the absolutely time-honoured combination of flashing lights, repetitive beats and good vibes which has received such consistent endorsement since before the limits of remembered history, can be celebrated right in the middle of Bristol until it's The Actual Daytime outside.
For as long as we have been fortunate enough to have had Lakota in our lives, our enjoyment of it has been acutened by some manner of entry-level panic owing to the latest vicious rumour that this time everyones' favourite party venue really is about to begin some ghastly new existence as 'Student Accommodation' or 'A Gym' or some other such lamentably utilitarian thing.
