Last week I saw that Lauren (Blonde_Vision) had last-minute some spaces at the #BloggersBelowZero event at Icebar London. She sent over the details and I was more than happy to attend, even if it meant breaking my Dry January. Yes, until January 25th, I hadn’t had a single drop of alcohol and it wasn’t that hard at all. It saved me money and I hate being hungover, so I would say most of January was productive!
Anyway, back to Icebar London – this is somewhere I have wanted to go for years but just somehow never managed to! One of my goals for this year was to meet new people and I am really trying to get out and experience more. Upon arrival at Icebar, I joined the very orderly queue and was greeted by the lovely staff and Lauren too. I was given a wristband and a slip of paper where I was instructed to ‘Find someone who lives in Essex‘. This was a great way to get talking with other bloggers and such a lovely icebreaker instead of the usual awkward small-talk.
I hadn’t realised that some of ladies from #BloggersChristmasBurger were attending so it was great to have a catch-up and reminisce about our overindulgent Christmases over a very appropriate mojito. Special shout out to the lovely Nadine, Pip, Megan and Laura!
Ice Ice BABY
What I can say about Icebar is that when you walk in it isn’t 5C! Thankfully! Instead there is a lovely basement bar which incorporates the yearly theme. This year, the theme was rock and I absolutely loved it, reminding me of my semi-emo phase aged 17 *voms*. I have a love for tattoos (having a fair few myself), so seeing this theme around Icebar was a visual delight and perhaps inspired me to get a few more soon!
As there were a lot of bloggers, we were all divided up by wristband colour (I had white) and were given a specific time to go into the actual Icebar. Before this, Tom, the Marketing Manager of the venue gave a fantastic speech of why he works with bloggers and that they’re a force to be reckoned with (I think!). I particularly like the part where he mentioned something along the line of ‘You should really pay attention to bloggers who love writing about places/things’ etc. Apologies if I have misquoted you Tom, this is what happens when I write up posts too late!
Molly from Phoenix Magazine also spoke about her career and the blogger industries as a whole. This was really insightful as there can be a negative perception of the blogger world as ‘oh they’re only after free stuff’, but seriously we do work really hard. You can check out her magazine here!
After Tom and Molly spoke, it was time for a few more canapés and another Mojito (*drools*) before heading into the cold! I always have this thing where I hate cold weather when I’m in it, yet when Summer comes around I want Winter? And yes I’m going to New York in a few weeks where the temperature has plummeted to -6C. I guess Icebar was the perfect training for this…
Upon entering the actual Icebar, all bloggers had to put on an insulated poncho, complete with hood and gloves incase anyone got too cold! My first thought from entering the bar was ‘F*ck its cold, I need a drink’. Then realising the drink was served in a glass made of ice, I soon regretted my sentiment. But for some reason, I kind of got used to the cold after a while. The drink (I had a Monkey Wrench), must have loosened me up and I really began to appreciate the amount of work that goes into the venue. From the sculptures to the ice etchings, Icebar is truly an amazing experience and it really shows.
*inserts a ton of photos/videos below to illustrate my point*
[…] which is run by the very talented Lauren and Abi of LDN Meetup. I’d previously attending #BloggersBelowZero back in January which you can read here… but this time an Expo is where it was […]