0 how great this venue is (The O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome))

Member Name: Whizz11

Product:	The O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome)
Date:	02/10/08 (354 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great restaurants, bars, arena, good transport links

Disadvantages: None

Last night I had the very great pleasure of going to the 02 arena to see Stevie Wonder in concert. Stevie is by far the nicest, greatest musician of our times and put on an amazing show, what a truly wonderful human being. I could go on all day about the concert but this review is actually about the 02 itself so here goes.

The 02 is an entertainment Mecca, featuring not only the arena but an exhibition space, bars and restaurant. It is housed inside the former Millennium Dome in Greenwich, South East London. The Millennium Dome was built for, surprisingly enough, the Millennium celebrations and housed The Millennium Experience, a huge exhibition celebrating the momentous event. It was quite controversial in its time and didn't really capture the hearts of the nation at that time and there were many discussions as to what would happen to it once it ceased to house the exhibition.

The decision to turn it into a major entertainment venue in my opinion was genius. It is a great venue with lots of different aspects to it that make it a superb day/night out. The building itself is quite an impressive structure so already; the look of the place lends itself to a great experience. The O2 opened on June 24th 2007 with Bon Jovi playing an opening concert in the arena.

The O2 is extremely easy to get to. The best way in my opinion is on the tube. The Jubilee line goes there and the nearest stop is North Greenwich. What's nice is that after an event tubes probably go about every 5 to 10 minutes and are solely for people coming out of the arena so it's never majorly packed and hard to get. It took about 10 minutes last night to get out of the stadium and onto the tube and that was it so very handy and well done and there were staff directing you which was nice in an orderly queue.

You can also drive there. They have 2,000 spaces which can be pre-booked so that always a nice option although I hate to drive into London!! When you first walk in you will find stalls selling programs for the concert you are going to and off to your left is a larger booth selling all the merchandise for the event, t-shirts etc.

Entertainment Avenue is one part of the arena which is basically an avenue with lots of bars and restaurants along it. It is decorated really nicely. It's very wide and open and feels like you are strolling down a tree lined avenue in a major cosmopolitan city. If you have ever been to Las Vegas to me it sort of looks like a scene from on of their casinos with all the themed restaurants etc. Entertainment Avenue actually has artificial palm trees up and down it to add to the ambiance. It's worth looking on their website for a whole list of the bars and restaurants but the usual favourites are there such as Pizza Express, Zizzi's etc as well as some more up market places such as Gaucho's. I would say that pretty much any type of food you want is featured there as they have Latin restaurants, steak, sushi and Italian. We ate a Las Iguanas, a Latin restaurant last night and you were not able to book, you just have to turn up. I'm not sure what the other restaurant policies are like but if you do intend to eat I definitely recommend turning up early as they get very busy, very fast.

The centre of the dome is where you will find the O2 arena which is where all the concerts, etc take place. Apparently it is the first American style multi-purpose arena in London. The arena has a 20,000 capacity and is one of the largest in Europe. I've been to two concerts there now and each time was extremely impressed with the quality of the arena for a concert type event. Even though it is large it is somehow quite an intimate venue I feel. The artist is not like a tiny dot somewhere in the distance; you can actually see them and feel like they are singing to you. They have two giant screens either side of the stage which show the action close up. The seats are quite steep so even if you have someone tall sitting in front of you, you still have a perfect view of the stage. In fact I would say there does not seem to be a bad seat in the house. The staff is very knowledgeable about where the seats are and can lead you there efficiently. The area is signposted very well though so it is quite easy to find where you need to go and where you need to enter the arena.

I believe most tickets can be purchased through their preferred provider Ticketmaster. You can search on the 02 website (http://www.theo2.co.uk/) for tickets and then when you click on the link to buy it takes you to the Ticketmaster website.

The sound was brilliant, the lighting great although it does get very hot in there, as you can probably imagine, 20,000 people all grooving to Stevie Wonder does get rather hot. (The other concert I went to was the Spice Girls (I know, sad but hey, at least I'm admitting it) and it got hot then too!!). As you are waiting for the act to come on stage the upcoming guests are advertised on screens around the arena which is good actually because we saw loads of people we'd love to come back and see.

I have to say, a great venue, a perfect place to see you favourite artist or group and I for one definitely can't wait to go back!.

Summary: The 02 Arena, Greenwich