My Home City
March 1, 2008
This was the Nottingham Eye - short-lived, but it was good.
It was my last night so obviously I'm off out for a few drinks. I love Nottingham. It's such a big city, but it's incredibly compact. If you ever get here, you'll either come by bus or train and be in the city centre within a very short walk. From the main Market Square, you can reach pretty much anywhere inside the city within a 5-10 walk. That's pretty good when you consider what the city has to offer.
I'll write reviews of things to do and where to go in this city as I go along.
This was the Nottingham Eye - sh...
The Dot-to-Dot Festival
This is a music festival held each year in Nottingham and Bristol. It's always held on the bank holiday weekend at the end of May and is a great place to see several up and coming acts as well as established ones trying to increase their fan base.
http://www.dottodotfestival.co.uk/
The festival is a two day event usually starting at midday on the Saturday and carrying right through to the very early hours of Monday morning. The day will start with mostly unsigned bands playing across six different venues in Nottingham, but as the day progresses the quality of the bands improves to professional status.
At the main venues (Rock City, the Rescue Rooms, the Bodega (formerly known as The Social), and at the Nottingham Trent Student Union, you'll get signed bands with bigger followings. The main acts will be on stage between 7pm and 11pm, but make sure you are where the main band(s) you want to see a fair while earlier as venues do reach their capacity pretty quickly close to the start of the sets.
Some venues close as the night gets later; but if you are wanting to continue watching the acts, get in to the Rescue Rooms or Stealth early enough as these places refuse entry later in the night due to being at capacity.
It's a great weekend, especially if you know a little bit about some of the newer bands. It has a lot of music variation to suit most tastes and you will struggle not to find new acts to your taste.
http://www.dottodotfestival.co.uk/
The festival is a two day event usually starting at midday on the Saturday and carrying right through to the very early hours of Monday morning. The day will start with mostly unsigned bands playing across six different venues in Nottingham, but as the day progresses the quality of the bands improves to professional status.
At the main venues (Rock City, the Rescue Rooms, the Bodega (formerly known as The Social), and at the Nottingham Trent Student Union, you'll get signed bands with bigger followings. The main acts will be on stage between 7pm and 11pm, but make sure you are where the main band(s) you want to see a fair while earlier as venues do reach their capacity pretty quickly close to the start of the sets.
Some venues close as the night gets later; but if you are wanting to continue watching the acts, get in to the Rescue Rooms or Stealth early enough as these places refuse entry later in the night due to being at capacity.
It's a great weekend, especially if you know a little bit about some of the newer bands. It has a lot of music variation to suit most tastes and you will struggle not to find new acts to your taste.
The Nottingham Panthers
The National Ice Arena has just been built up in Nottingham and it can now hold a capacity of nearly 10,000, but this can go considerably higher when the venue hosts gigs and concerts. Recently acts such as Oasis, The Kings of Leon, The Verve, The Killers and The Prodigy to name but a few have performed there. It's not the greatest venue for music in my opinion, but it does have the ability to attract some of the worlds biggest acts. As it's name suggests, it is also home to a lot of skating and Ice Hockey events. On this particular night (1st March), I went to watch the Nottingham Panthers play against their local rivals, Coventry Blaze.
The tickets cost me £16.50, which I think is very reasonable considering the cost of other sporting events. The crowd is also very mixed with its male to female ratio and a lot of families come to watch as well.
In this particular game, the hype pre-kick-off was quite huge. Coventry Blaze had all but won the league and Nottingham Panthers had just won the cup so it was a bit of a grudge match. Blaze came out on the ice closely followed by the Panthers (led by Paws, the mascot). The National anthem was played and then it was set for the KO. All of a sudden a fight brakes out before the puck has even touched the ice! This is going to be a violent game tonight!!
When the first period got underway, the Panthers were looking quite good. They had a lot of possession, but couldn't find the net. The next thing I knew, the music to Rocky was being played as another fight broke out! Are kids really watching this I wondered?
As the game went on, Paws was walking through the crowd passing the Challenge Cup along each row of fans. Every fan in the arena got to lift the trophy. Wow! This is ice hockey's equivalent of the FA Cup and it's being passed into our grubby mits! Amazing.
Blaze started stronger in the second period and quickly scored. The Panthers retaliated and bagged an equaliser, but Blaze carried on and the period ended with Blaze up 3-1.
Blaze were now showing some title winning dominance and went up 5-1 in the 3rd period and the frustration clearly got to the Panthers as a third fight broke out and that's the way the game ended.
Impressively, the whole crowd stayed to watch the match until the end and applauded the performance. I liked this level of respect. I'm more used to football matches and watching home fans leave early instead of seeing their team walk off after defeat; it's pretty poor really.
Ice hockey is a great and entertaining sport and would recommend it to everyone. It's an affordable piece of family fun which will have you singing along and showing your support. The Nottingham Ice Arena is a great venue for such a sport.
The tickets cost me £16.50, which I think is very reasonable considering the cost of other sporting events. The crowd is also very mixed with its male to female ratio and a lot of families come to watch as well.
In this particular game, the hype pre-kick-off was quite huge. Coventry Blaze had all but won the league and Nottingham Panthers had just won the cup so it was a bit of a grudge match. Blaze came out on the ice closely followed by the Panthers (led by Paws, the mascot). The National anthem was played and then it was set for the KO. All of a sudden a fight brakes out before the puck has even touched the ice! This is going to be a violent game tonight!!
When the first period got underway, the Panthers were looking quite good. They had a lot of possession, but couldn't find the net. The next thing I knew, the music to Rocky was being played as another fight broke out! Are kids really watching this I wondered?
As the game went on, Paws was walking through the crowd passing the Challenge Cup along each row of fans. Every fan in the arena got to lift the trophy. Wow! This is ice hockey's equivalent of the FA Cup and it's being passed into our grubby mits! Amazing.
Blaze started stronger in the second period and quickly scored. The Panthers retaliated and bagged an equaliser, but Blaze carried on and the period ended with Blaze up 3-1.
Blaze were now showing some title winning dominance and went up 5-1 in the 3rd period and the frustration clearly got to the Panthers as a third fight broke out and that's the way the game ended.
Impressively, the whole crowd stayed to watch the match until the end and applauded the performance. I liked this level of respect. I'm more used to football matches and watching home fans leave early instead of seeing their team walk off after defeat; it's pretty poor really.
Ice hockey is a great and entertaining sport and would recommend it to everyone. It's an affordable piece of family fun which will have you singing along and showing your support. The Nottingham Ice Arena is a great venue for such a sport.
