After a mad rush and a tantrum trying to make myself look presentable in the tiny toilets at work, I made my way to Concrete for Musical Bingo’s ‘Love In’ special.
Now if you’re anything like me, the concept of Musical Bingo will baffle and confuse you. From the name you can probably guess that it’s bingo related, and on this occasion Valentine’s Day themed. So, in a nutshell; Musical bingo is a night that is regularly held at clubs and bars throughout London. While in keeping with the original rules of bingo, the difference is that they play songs instead of shouting numbers and each round has a quirky theme.
As for the venue, Concrete is situated in the heart of Shoreditch, dead opposite the station in Pizza East’s underground space. I had been to Pizza East before and absolutely loved their food as well as the whole atmosphere. Think rustic, authentic Italian dining and a dose of dimmed lighting for good measure. It truly is an East London gem which made me all the more excited to visit Concrete. In fact, I was surprised I’d never given it a look in before.
Being pretty new on the blogging scene, this was the first ever ‘blogger event’ I had ever been to, so I was completely clueless as to how things worked. However, Musical Bingo made for the perfect place to start my quest due to how interactive the night was.
On arrival I was pretty early and didn’t recognise any bloggers anywhere .. Luckily I caught someone’s eye (Kat) who looked just as lost as I did so we headed to the bar upstairs for a quick drink before the night began. When we made our way down we were greeted with a goodie bag and a rather large bucket-full of prosecco on ice – good start! Inside the goodie bag I found a style saviour – a Wet Brush! I was so happy because I’ve been wanting to try one for ages now! (It’s amazing by the way.) We also received some sweets, a bottle of dry shampoo and a CostaBingo.com key-ring. The night was organised by Costa Bingo who also gave all bloggers £10 to spend on the site.
Concrete itself didn’t disappoint, it had the same raw vibe as Pizza East with industrial-looking lighting and long chipboard tables and benches. At the back of the room there was a full length bar and at the front was a stage decorated with Robin Thicke-esque balloons and the prize shelf.
Soon after the cameras were out, the drinks were flowing and we all began to mingle. We were on long, school dinner-like tables so I didn’t really get a chance to speak to the bloggers on the far end. However, I did get to meet some really lovely people as well as Kat such as Georgina, Sarah, Milly, Mariah, Jayne and Kristiana! Soon after pizzas arrived and we all dived in to to a range of Pizza East’s innovative flavour combinations such as anchovy, caper & olive and spicy sausage, mozzarella & tenderstem broccoli. All of which were quickly demolished in time for the introduction to our Musical Bingo host, Ditzy Ritzy.
And what an introduction it was! The all-singing and dancing Ditzy Ritzy arrived in a trolley disguised as a swan, which was decorated with pictures of the One Direction boys… you don’t get that at Gala bingo! From the off-shot it was clear that this wouldn’t be your usual ‘two little ducks quack quack’ kind of bingo.
Eyes down, pens ready and we were off playing for the first line which to my surprise, I won! I was invited on to the stage to collect my prize with a slice of pizza still in hand! As it was the first line, I won one of the smaller prizes which was a pair or party glasses, but prizes throughout the night included drink vouchers such as ‘Shots Galore!’ and even a slow cooker.
Each round had a different take on the love theme including ‘Love is the Message’, ‘Best Duets’ and ‘Heart Break Hotels’. Whilst each song was playing people would be invited up to sing and it was only a matter of time before some of us were on stage singing and dancing! All this added to the laughter and made sure there was never a dull moment. By the time we reached the third and final round our sheets had pretty much turned into mush on the wet table, which I think may have been due to all of our excessive table dancing.
Musical Bingo made for a great place to network with fellow bloggers and was definitely more than what I had expected! Thank you Scarlett London, Elena at Green Light Media and all the other bloggers for a fab night!