Micro raves: London's sophisticated rave scene

Mention raves and what comes to mind are warehouses, drugs, repetitive beats and hordes of party animals. But recently London's nightclubbers have joined a more compact and sophisticated rave scene.

"It's no news that nightclubs are dead and people are looking for interesting and liberating places to party," explains Eazy Bailey, the organiser of International Arts Limited. "We attract an affluent, music and fashion-conscious crowd, who like to party in a nonconformist way - warehouse parties done in comfort and style. We put a strong emphasis on good service, high quality sound and lighting, have comfortable furnishings, a cloakroom and enough loos. We accept credit cards and operate a full-service bar - we serve cocktails and champagne and have plenty of places to sit down."

There is nothing unusual about seeing Kanye West or Fatboy Slim, Jade Jagger or Marc Ronson partying it up in the middle of Bailey's main venue, an old Victorian foundry in Notting Hill called the Loft.

The venue can hold 400 clubbers in four different rooms. Another club called Low, which opened in St James 10 days ago, is the size of a boutique and holds just 150 partygoers. The engineer who installed the sound system said: "It's like putting a Ferrari engine in a Fiat Cinquecento."

Alex Potter, one of the organisers of Love Brunch, which operates a micro-rave at the Sanderson Hotel every month, says: "West End boutiques now install CO2 jets, Chelsea residents rave in the Battersea Power Station and places like Bungalow 8 work with tech house producers such as Clive Henry and Lee Foss from Circo Loco/DC10."

Potter, along with Jonny Boud, Tom Carr, Tori Cook and Hugo Heathcote, has been organising parties in between Notting Hill's Supperclub on Acklam Road and the Kensington Roof Gardens in W8.

"We organise parties in west London because we are from west London," adds Carr.

Aristo-ravers such as designer Matthew Williamson, Prince Harry's ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy and model sisters Cara and Poppy Delevingne are regulars. "The West End raves are modelled on something more glamorous. The clubbers are ready to pay £40 or £50 per head," he says.

The Sanderson, the five-star boutique hotel in Berners Street, W1, hosted Love Brunch's second anniversary party on Saturday, gathering actress Sienna Miller and models David Gandy and Doug Booth to its Long Bar and Courtyard Garden. It kicked off what will be a regular monthly night that is expected to attract 300 clubbers.

Raimondo Gaetani, co-founder of Another Party, which organises both 1,000-people warehouse parties in the east and micro-sized raves in the West End, explains: "Some of the bigger
artists who started warehouse raves in the Nineties, from London to Detroit, now want smaller venues, where their closest friends can enjoy a familiar atmosphere with a high-spec decor and sound system.

"This is resulting in a new era of night clubs - seen in Berlin and Ibiza already - that serve industry heads and their circles the music they love in intimate surroundings," says Gaetani.