‘Blokes who would normally fight would get off their boxes and dance’: Sanctuary, the club that made Milton Keynes massive

It eventually got turned into an Ikea, but for over a decade this warehouse unit galvanised hard dance, grime and more. At a big reunion, former ravers recall the magic

‘The scene is splintered,” Karl says, unsheathing one of his two annual cigars. “But it’s still alive.”

Milton Keynes’ Stadium MK looms overhead and bass shakes the outdoor Portaloos, as ravers like Karl return to V7 Saxon Street, once the address of the superclub Sanctuary Music Arena. Its great glass doors welcomed close to a million people between 1993 and 2004, and 20 years on, 8,500 of them have returned across two Saturdays in November for Sanctuary Forever: The Return to V7 Saxon Street, billed as the “the biggest rave reunion in history”. With sets spanning drum’n’bass, jungle, hardcore, speed garage and gabber – pierced by soaring, smoke-textured lasers and the squawk of “ravehorns” from the official merch table – it is enough for Karl to be “literally transported back to the early 90s”.