24 Below launch night

24 Below opened its doors for the first time last night, as a crowd of students poured in bang on the 10pm opening. We took a small team of Tab writers down to try out Stirling’s most talked about new addition first hand.

The Tab’s Gerri and Alison on the dancefloor

Entry to the student-only night ‘Jukebox’ comes in at a manageable £3 (with another £1 for cloakroom) which saw no complaints. Once inside, the club is split into two distinct sections: RnB/chart and house/dance. Each has a bar and its own distinct feel, which is a nice change from the Stirling norm. The chart room is even decked out with a running water feature that was getting more than a few impressed – and perplexed -looks.

The towering waterfall was a topic of conversation all night

The club itself looked great, delivering on its promise of bringing an upmarket feel to an affordable student night. Being a boutique club it is a fairly small place, but doesn’t suffer for it.

The variety of music on offer would satisfy any club regular – the newest tunes with a few old classics thrown into the mix. The dance floors began to fill on both sides as Euan Lawrence and Jonny Ruiz, Jukebox DJs, gave it their all.

Jonny Ruiz on the decks

Not everything went smoothly, however. We were charged £2 for a drink at one bar, only to find ourselves being charged nearly a pound more for the same drink at the next. Deciding to test out the pricing once more, we headed back to the pricier bar only to find that they’d run out of vodka altogether!

Running out of vodka on opening night was sure to cause an uproar

The queues for drinks became more unmanageable as the night got on, with people waiting upwards of 40 minutes for a drink. Each bar was only staffed by two workers, meaning the crowds waited some time to be refreshed.

These queues came on top of the fact that, as the club filled, the house/dance room became unbearably hot. People began visibly fanning themselves and leaving the bar queue to make for the slightly larger and more temperate RnB/chart room, regardless of music preference.

The sauna-like Room 2 was just 2 much for some

On leaving we took some time to speak to other club goers about their night. The opinions mostly lined up – a nice looking club with frustrating bar queues. Nonetheless, almost all agreed that it was a welcome change for a Stirling night out.

A variety of The Tab classics (local legends, reporter extraordinaires etc etc) showed face for the launch

What did you make of the launch of 24 Below? Let us know in the comments below.