Review: DONT WALK

The most exciting thing in the lead up to DONT WALK 2014 was undoubtedly the prospect of a new venue: for a small town, this was big news.  With buses leaving at 6.15pm it was an early start and was quite obviously going to be a long night.  The location of choice was The Bowhouse in St Monans.

“Ermm…where is St Monans?” I hear you ask.

Well I don’t actually know, but apparently life does exist after Anstruther. With Arthur’s Seat in clear view,  perhaps the distance was pushed a little.  That’s what DONT WALK is all about isn’t it?

Once inside, the venue was impressive (and heel friendly, thankfully).  The Front of House evidently put a lot of thought into the transformation of the empty barn to make it a cool and sophisticated venue but there were some complaints that we’d travelled half an hour to a replica of Kinkell.  The set up was spacious and flowed well with the corporate tables next to the catwalk and standard tickets occupying the main area, meaning that guests were split across two very well staffed bars, always a bonus!

Goody bags for the guests this year included a chocolate brownie and caramel wafer (much needed given the early start), a lighter, sponsor vouchers, and for the first time, a DONT WALK newsletter, with articles from each committee member giving an insight into the planning ahead of the show. Sadly, but not surprisingly,  guests were too pre-occupied with cracking open their champagne and getting their complementary bar drinks to look at the newsletter too thoroughly.

Given that guests arrived so early, there was quite a lot of waiting around before the obligatory pushing and shoving by the catwalk, however when it started…it was worth the wait.  The Creative team talked about an “artistic spectacle” and that’s exactly what the show was. Choreography was a massive factor and was a lot more than just walking down the runway, which kept the crowd engaged and interested.  The dipped section of the catwalk allowed for some creativity and was something a bit different. As expected, the models looked amazing and the clothes displayed were wearable as well as being fashion forward.  The show did seem like a party and it was good to see the models, as well as the guests, quite obviously having a good time.

The creative side of the show incorporated their two charities into the event.   The table clothes were photos of Croatia and Cameroon with opening outfits of futuristic angels, bringing the message of peace to our generation. Later outfits were intended to show empowerment of women which was a metaphor for empowerment of all minorities.

When the show finished there was a bit more waiting around until the after party started (and I wasn’t able to run home, change into Converse and have a drunken “inter party” at my house, like I did two weeks ago).  The location wad a risk and had I just gone to the after party, I would have thought it just a little too far away for a mere three hours.

DONT WALK’s resident DJs, Calum Bryant and Theo Borgvin Weiss were joined by Berlin-based deep house DJ Andre Crom, who saw the guests  into the early hours. The after-party was a highlight of the night, with the only complaint being that it not just cold but FREEZING… this perhaps cut the night short for the weaker among us.

If the whole essence behind DONT WALK is creativity, then the committee got the show spot on. We’re all excited to see where they take it next year – just a few more heaters, please.