The Luxury Travel Magazine
The Luxury Travel Magazine
In 1995, London’s dance floors were hallowed ground. House and garage ruled the city’s underground, and a night out meant full-body immersion: basslines rumbling through your ribcage, vocal hooks sticking in your head for days, communal euphoria blooming between midnight and sunrise. For many, it wasn’t just music — it was a way of belonging to a city that moved fast but felt limitless.
Backto95 has spent nearly a quarter-century keeping that spirit alive. At their 24th birthday party at Ministry of Sound, they proved once again why these sounds—and these nights—still matter.
Backto95 events tap into more than just musical memory—they recreate a full-bodied return to when the dancefloor was sacred, the music was gospel, and the weekend promised freedom. These festivals are time machines: one bassline, one vocal riff, and you’re back in that sweat-drenched club on a Saturday in ’98, shoulder to shoulder with your crew, no phones, no selfies, just pure presence.
Beyond the tracks, it was a communal celebration. Attendees—longtime fans and newcomers alike—danced together, swapped stories, and relived moments of youth. It wasn’t just about remembering; it was about living it all over again.
The event unfolded across five arenas in the Minstry of Sound, each dedicated to a different sound. Headlining The Box, the main room, was the legendary DJ and producer Grant Nelson, delivering a blistering live set alongside Blu James, who ripped through house and garage anthems like “I Wanna Know” and “It’s My House.”
Over in Room 103, R&B legend Horace Brown, flown in from the US, worked the crowd with classics like “Things We Do For Love,” “One for The Money,” and “Taste Your Love,” backed by DJs spinning the best in R&B, hip hop, and dancehall.
Down in the Baby Box, Jumping Jack Frost laid down oldskool jungle classics, each drop heavier than the last. Upstairs in the Loft, oldskool funky house kept bodies moving, headlined by the legendary Wigman. ries and music collided in the best possible way.
Out in the Courtyard, House FM took over, with a standout set from the mighty DJ Spen—fresh from the US—bringing serious heat to the open air.
The joy at Backto95 hits differently. It’s the euphoria of hearing the opening bars of a track you hadn’t realized was still living in your bones. It’s a chorus you don’t just sing—you shout, surrounded by strangers who feel like family for eight perfect hours. It’s the surge when the DJ pulls it back before the drop, teasing the crowd into a frenzy you feel in your spine.
This isn’t a feeling you can download. It’s the soundtrack of first loves, heartbreaks, bedroom mixtapes, pirate radio shoutouts. Every set paid tribute to the era that shaped them—the shell toes, the Moschino shirts, the warehouse raves. At Backto95, those memories weren’t distant—they were happening all over again.
Backto95 understands something essential: the generation that raved through the ’90s might not want to party until 6AM anymore, but they still crave serious music and real atmosphere. This was the day party they’ve been waiting for—doors open at 2PM, last track at 10PM. No endless taxi queues at 5AM, no lost Sundays. Just the right amount of excess, perfectly timed.
And while many of the crowd are now deep into their 40s and 50s, their energy hasn’t dulled. If anything, it’s sharpened: less posturing, more pure movement. They owned the dancefloor with the authority of people who helped build it.
The crowd was multigenerational—original heads who lived the era alongside younger fans raised on the legends. No one was chasing a trend. They were there to honour the music that shaped them, and to create a few new memories while they were at it.
The day was more than just a party; it was a celebration of the enduring legacy of ’90s dance music. It wasn’t nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake—it was about connection, emotion, and music’s power to collapse time.
People danced like twenty-somethings again because, for those hours, they were. It didn’t matter how many years had passed since those first nights spent in London’s clubs—Backto95 brought it all back,creating a space where memories and music collided in the best possible way.
