How to Pace Six Hours on a Dancefloor

Split it into three two-hour blocks and treat each one differently. Eat a proper meal before you go, take a real sit-down between blocks rather than when your legs demand it, keep a glass of water going alongside whatever else you are drinking, and wear shoes you have already stood up in for a full day. That is the whole method, and it is the difference between a great last hour and leaving early.

Six hours sounds like a lot until you remember you used to do longer. The catch is that a Dreamworx afternoon front-loads it. There is no gentle hour at the beginning while the room fills, so you are properly going from early on.

Eat Before, Not After

Have a real meal an hour or two before you go in. Something with substance that you actually want to eat, not a token sandwich at the kitchen counter.

An afternoon start catches people out here. You go straight from a normal Saturday onto a dancefloor without the usual pre-night-out routine, and it is easy to arrive having had toast at nine and nothing since.

What You'll Spend

Pacing yourself is mostly free, but budget for the parts that keep you going.

• A proper meal beforehand. Cook at home and it costs almost nothing. Eat out with the group and it becomes part of the day.
• Water at the bar. Tap water is free and you can ask for it. Ask while you are already being served rather than queuing separately.
• Cloakroom. A couple of pounds to not carry a coat for six hours is the best value of the day.
• Food on the way home. Budget for it so it is a plan rather than a raid on the fridge at midnight.

None of that is much. Leaving room for it in your spending is what stops the last two hours turning into an endurance test.

The Three-Block Plan

The first two hours are the ones you will be most tempted to overdo, because the floor is full and everything is new. Go at about eighty per cent. Get your bearings, find the spot you like, and let the room come to you.

The middle two hours are the best of it. This is when the DJ has the room and the tunes you came for start landing. Spend your energy here rather than saving it for later, because later is not when the peak is.

The last two hours are about staying in the room. Fewer big efforts, more standing near the front, and take the sit-downs when they are offered rather than when they are needed.

Your Shoes Decide the Whole Day

Nothing else comes close. Six hours standing on a hard floor in shoes you bought for a wedding will end your afternoon at four o'clock, and no amount of planning fixes it once you are in there.

Wear something you have already worn for a full day on your feet. Trainers are entirely normal in a daytime room. If you want a bit of height, a block heel you have broken in beats a new pair every time, and a proper insole costs a few pounds and changes everything.

Thin socks in warm shoes, if you are wearing socks at all. Warm feet swell, and tight shoes at hour four are their own kind of misery.

Water and Sitting Down

Get a glass of water in alongside your round rather than instead of it. It is one extra thing to carry back from the bar and it keeps you comfortable in a hot room.

Sit down properly at least twice. Not perched on a ledge, actually sat, for ten minutes, ideally somewhere slightly cooler. Ten minutes off your feet at the right time buys back an hour at the end.

Step outside for air once or twice too. A warm busy room feels very different after five minutes in the fresh air, and it resets your ears as much as your legs.

Pick your spot on the floor with the same thinking. Right at the front is brilliant and it is also the hottest, busiest and most jostled part of the room for six straight hours. Move between the front and a bit of space at the side rather than holding one position all afternoon, and you will still be standing when it matters.

The Last Hour

The last hour at Dreamworx is the one everybody remembers, and it is usually where the flashbacks land. A flashback is the Frisk word for a proper oldskool tune, the sort that draws everyone on to the dancefloor, and the end of the day is where they get stacked up.

So save something for it. If you have paced the afternoon properly you will be in the middle of the floor with your arms up rather than sat by the cloakroom waiting for your mates. That is the entire point of pacing yourself, and it is worth the small amount of planning it takes.