Hardcore Heaven A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Stevenage Ice Arena • Friday 5 July 1996. This page opens Hardcore Heaven as a proper event-history strand on Rave Archive UK, anchored by the original flyer and three verified Rave Archive UK recordings.
Hardcore Heaven in the 1996 split
By summer 1996, the rave network had become more musically specialised than the broad early-1990s circuit. Hardcore Heaven’s Stevenage dates sit squarely inside that change, with happy hardcore and harder-edged hardcore developing their own event identities while jungle and drum & bass were building a parallel infrastructure elsewhere.
The surviving flyer places this event at Stevenage Ice Arena on 5 July 1996. Flyer cataloguing attributes the promotion to Impact Records and the artwork to Pez. Those details give the night its firm event identity; later commercial tape-pack lists are useful for showing what material circulated afterwards.
Rave Archive UK currently has three own-account transfers from the date: Hixxy with Charlie B, Vinylgroover with Freestyle, and Billy Bunter. More can be added as direct archive links are recovered.
Three recordings from 5.7.96
DJ Hixxy w/ Charlie B — Hardcore Heaven ‘Midsummer Nights Dream’ — Stevenage Ice Arena — 5.7.96
Vinylgroover w/ Freestyle — Hardcore Heaven ‘Midsummer Nights Dream’ — Stevenage Ice Arena — 5.7.96
Billy Bunter — Hardcore Heaven ‘Midsummer Nights Dream’ — Stevenage Ice Arena — 5.7.96
Other sets from the event are documented in later tape-pack and community catalogues. They can be added as direct recording destinations are recovered.
Where the story comes from
Original 5 July 1996 Hardcore Heaven flyer.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Stevenage Ice Arena, 5 July 1996, Impact Records and Pez.
Hixxy, Vinylgroover and Billy Bunter recordings.
Used to identify further surviving material.
