Ironworks Prepares to Open This Weekend with Inaugural Five-Show Series
London’s new 7,000-capacity warehouse venue Ironworks will open its doors next Saturday, 3 October, beginning a limited five-show debut season of large-scale electronic music events on the banks of the Thames.
Developed by LWE in partnership with cultural placemaking organisation PROJEKT, the series will mark the first opportunity for audiences to experience the vast former industrial site in London’s Royal Docks. Jamie Jones, Eric Prydz, CamelPhat, Appetite and Charlotte de Witte will each take over the venue across October and into the first weekend of November.
Opening for just five large-scale music events across its first season, each Ironworks show will be conceived around the artists, sounds and communities taking over the space. Combining more than 150,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space, including a 7,000-capacity warehouse and open-air riverside areas overlooking the Thames, the site provides a new setting for electronic music at scale in the capital.
The season opens on Saturday 3 October as Jamie Jones launches his new Voyager concept, tracing different eras and influences across his career through DJ sets and live performance. Alongside a dedicated 2010-era set, Jones will perform a DJ set featuring live performances from Ali Love, Camden Cox, Constance Power and Kah-Lo, joined by Seth Troxler, Adam Ten, Manda Moor and Goosey b2b Florentia. Ironworks Jamie Jones launch.
On Saturday 10 October, Eric Prydz takes over Ironworks for an already sold-out show, joined by Aaron Hibell, Azzecca, Kotiēr and Sanaz. Following the show, the programme continues into the night at fabric with Ironworks by night, bringing together Aaron Hibell, KiNK (Live), Sanaz and Kotiēr in Room 01, alongside Slam, The Tunegirl (Live) and Kwartz in Room 02 and M.Á.S in Room 03.
CamelPhat follow on Saturday 24 October, bringing their expansive house sound to Ironworks for an extended four-hour set, alongside Avangart Tabldot, Hardt Antoine and KT. On Saturday 31 October, London party and label Appetite takes over Ironworks for Halloween, with founders Elliot Schooling & Liam Palmer joined by Groove Armada, Lewis Carroll, Egyptian Lover and TKT Tarantino, with further names still to be announced. The debut season concludes on Sunday 1 November with a sold-out show from Charlotte de Witte, bringing Ironworks’ opening run to a close with a heavyweight programme of techno.
Across the season, the programme moves through house, techno and contemporary club music, bringing established international artists together with a new generation of talent. Sound, lighting and visual production will work with the scale and industrial architecture of Ironworks, with each show creating a distinct environment around its artists and programme.
Once part of the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, the site has more recently operated behind closed doors for film and television production and community use. Its latest chapter sees the industrial space opened to wider public use as the Royal Docks continues to evolve as a district for culture, enterprise and creative activity.
Alongside the music programme, Museum of Youth Culture will present a visual installation exploring the evolution of rave culture across generations. Bringing together the work of Dave Swindells, whose photography captured the emergence of acid house and rave culture from the late 1980s into the 1990s, and contemporary photographer Yushy, who has spent almost a decade documenting British nightlife from Cardiff’s underground scene to London’s clubs and free parties, the installation places two generations of rave culture side by side, tracing how its people, spaces and communities have evolved from the early rave era to the present day.
For five shows only, Ironworks will reactivate a piece of London’s industrial landscape as a new space for electronic music, bringing together artists, audiences and large-scale production for a deliberately limited opening season.
