Full Spectrum - Edinburgh International Science Festival

There’s a mysterious hum about Summerhall Courtyard tonight: bassy grumblings echoing from the pre-event warm-up dome, and The Royal Dick bar filling to the brim. Insatiable hype levels building up to the Science Festival’s first ever club night have already proven the worth of getting their occasionally-neglected demographic of 20/30-somethings involved in the programme.

Funk, soul and electro mixes are delivered by four-way speakers from five DJ acts in the Dissection Room, but despite the total advance ticket sell-out, it takes until midnight to fill out – the warm-up event definitely deserved more of a shout-out. DJ Astrojazz is the first to give the builds and drops the crowd is thirsty for, and Crazy P keeps the throng hypnotised til the late hours, dosing out hearty house-disco with live vocals from the ever-classily-clad Danielle Moore.

3D glasses multiply visuals ten-fold – literally – with fellow punters becoming holographic ghosts. There’s an obvious rift in dance style between those who had their lenses off/on; i.e. giving/not giving an utter shit; highly recommended for any sober clubber. The surprise light-filled balloon explosion kept energy high midway, but the ‘large-scale’ visuals weren’t cutting-edge and had difficulty fitting around the awkwardly-shaped venue, and promised ‘audio-reactive installations’ were less obvious.

A bit rough around the edges, then, but it’s clear that the curators of this event have totally nailed (if so far hypothetically) what Edinburgh clubbers crave. Giving us something with more imagination than a cheap bar and a faceless DJ always means we’ll happily cough up the extra dosh. [Luisa Brown]