O2 Victoria Warehouse — Attraction in Trafford

Experience varies greatly with how people perceive a different events here so for context I attended an evening event where doors opened at 6 pm in December, so you can tell whether this will be a similar experience for you Getting to the venue , you can easily access via a taxi or an Uber or you can take the tram to Trafford bar and then walk the 10 to 15 minutes over to the O2 Victoria Once you get there, you do need to queue outside and you’re guided through lanes like you’re inside the airport trying to get to security where they bob and weave you through to make the walk seem ridiculously long in anything but a straight line. No, if you were in flats and boots this is absolutely no problem, but if you’re a female with heels and if you go the extra mile with open toed sandals, then you aren’t going to struggle puddle dodging through what feels like a dirty building site and pens. However, if you’re insensible footwear then this really isn’t a problem. Once you get through this queueing system, you then end up with a makeshift tent outside the doors where you step through a metal detector and you’ll have a quick body scan which requires you to remove anything electrical that would set the scanner off Now, personally, I didn’t get any kind of body search here and it was pretty obvious. People were smuggling in booze, and they were trying to check bags in order to prevent this. Once you step inside the warehouse, there is a cloakroom over on the left-hand side which had 0Q, and honestly I didn’t see many people actually use this service, and for those that did they were attended to very quickly For those people who are downstairs, there are huge bars so you will need to queue. However, they did seem to be going pretty quickly and there are enormous bathrooms with the men’s on the right hand side of the entrance and the women’s on the opposite side, both of which are decent size to cater for such a large venue . The stage is on the opposite side of the building to the entrance, and it’s gonna nice large area which is standing only in front of it Because it’s a really big warehouse and the layout it is freezing cold in December when it’s close to 0 outside so a lot of people did spend the entire evening with their coats on and if you’re not great at being on your feet full on period time this place is not ideal because there is nowhere for you to sit down If you do go for the VIP service there are set of stairs that lead you upstairs. This is located past the gents bathroom pasta bar and then you’ll get to accept stairs lead you upstairs where you’ll see a large bar on one side and then a balcony that looks out to the stage on the opposite side of the bar at the end opposite where you come up. There are dedicated Bathrooms for females and females, so you never have to queue for the bathroom You think with a dedicated bar that the service would be pretty quick however, I did end up waiting for at least 3 to 4 minutes for two or three other people to be served before me every time I went to the bar in VIP Considering downstairs has a queueing system, I would say the wait time is probably comparable even though it looks like there are more people at the bar downstairs. There are a lot more staff serving so I would guess that the week times were similar as no one was struggling to get served at the bars downstairs. So essentially, if you’re wondering what you get for VIP, you have a dedicated bathroom and a dedicated bar and a large upstairs area that’s pretty breezy with a very strong air-conditioning unit in an already very cold room in the winter time No, I do admit as a female, we do always tend to complain about the cold and it just so happened at the time of year that I went, but it was an issue. However this isn’t the case I know people who’ve been plenty of other times and went to the same event last year and came back again, and they struggled with the opposite problem that it was actually too hot. Only leaving the venue at 11 pm. The road was closed so you do have to walk at least 10 minutes...

We were a bit apprehensive having read some poor reviews online, but we went to see a band (Enter Shikari) this week and we had no issues at all. We arrived shortly after doors opened but there were no queues at all. Door staff and bag check were working very quickly and efficiently to get people checked and inside. As other people had recommended, we had O2 priority queue which saved us a little bit of time having to weave through all the zigzag fencing, but to be honest we probably didn't need it on this occasion.

The venue was a decent size (perhaps a bit longer and wider than the Manchester Academy at a guess). It was actually smaller than we'd anticipated, however, we had no issues finding a spot we liked in the stalls area. It was small enough that we were easily able to find each other again if one of us went to the bar/bathroom (using the speakers and air vents on the ceiling as a visual guide). The ladies bathrooms were large, with plenty of cubicles, well looked after, clean, etc. and no queues at all, which is not a typical gig experience for me!

I didn't go to the bar myself so I don't know how expensive drinks were, but you could get free tap water (in plastic glasses, not bottles so they don't get thrown) all night which is all we really wanted.

From where we were standing (about a third of the way from the stage towards the right hand side), the sound was excellent and we still had a decent view of the stage (but we're both on the tall side). We couldn't always see all the band members, but that's the nature of live music, and the band had such a great stage set up and visual display that we still had a fantastic time despite not being super close to the stage. I can't comment on what the sound and visuals would have been like in the back of the room by the bar and the pillars as we didn't spend any time there during the main band's set, but if you're worried about being stuck in the back then I'd just recommend arriving a bit earlier to make sure you get a spot you're happy with.

Credit to all the staff who were working on Weds night, everything seemed to go incredibly smoothly from start to finish. We had a truly brilliant night and would be happy to go see a band at this...

Not difficult to find but make sure you prebook parking as there is nowhere to park otherwise. There are no facilities for food or drinks nearby. We saw Paolo Nutini on Sunday 23rd. The tickets said 7pm start; the venue said 8pm. We arrived at 6pm to find people starting to queue. The touts outside said it wouldn’t start until at least 8.30pm. We were lucky enough to get a spot at the front of the balcony so we had a little bit of space but downstairs, the main room was filled to overcapacity. People couldn’t move, you could see they literally had no space. People were vaping constantly - why aren’t vapes banned and confiscated by security? We saw one person collapse down there and it took a while to get the attention of security because no-one could move. The heat was incredible. Paolo came on around 8.45 and we’d had 3 hours of standing surrounded by more and more people and you could feel the temperature rising. My daughter collapsed. Thankfully, security got us out quite quickly and the paramedics were brilliant. They said the temperature was around 25 degrees at that point and rising. There was no ventilation at all. There was a procession of people overcome by the heat - how management can deny any incidents that night, I don’t know. The venue was definitely overcrowded. The main room and balcony were heaving and there were people everywhere - the bar areas, stairs, communal areas, trying to see and hear the music. Screens provided were small and inadequate. It was, frankly, dangerous, a potential nightmare in the event of a fire or a fight or a security issue. Two bars and one hot dog stand is utterly inadequate for 3,500 people standing around for hours. We enjoyed Paolo but left at the encore because my daughter felt so unwell and we had to retrieve the car. I’d see Paolo again but I wouldn’t want to go back to this venue. Overcrowded; unventilated; security frisked some people, not others; far too many vapes; too few facilities - not everyone wants beer or a hot dog. We...