Fifteen Years, Two Fingers at the Arches

In 1991, theatre director Andy Arnold received the keys to the huge, disused space underneath Glasgow's Central Station. He was fascinated by the possibilities of the space as a permanent venue for experimental work. After being approached by local promoters Slam, he realised that the space would work equally well as a night club, so began putting on regular weekend events. All extra revenue from the clubs was reinvested and helped to fund the in-house theatre productions. Fifteen years later and the Arches – with Arnold still at the helm – has come to occupy an essential, unique place in Scotland's cultural scene. Every Friday and Saturday night the old brick walls shake to deep, fat basslines and drip with the sweat of a thousand-odd up for it hedonists, and a recent poll of 600 international DJs placed the venue in the top ten clubs in the world. However, you can also find experimental theatre happening in the basement corridors, performance installations in the toilets, gigs going off in the archways and young artists deep in discussion at the bar. Fifteen Years, Two Fingers – a five week festival of all of those things - celebrates the Arches' determinedly non-conformist ethos. Big name DJs like Timo Maas and Green Velvet share a programme with emergent Scottish theatre companies, acts as diverse as Hot Chip, Rennie Pilgrem and Neville Staple are all expected to pull large crowds and Sharmanka and award-winning photographer Jannica Honey share the exhibition space. There will be something different and no doubt exciting going on every night – it's the sort of celebration that you really do need to be a part of.