“NYC Downlow’s slutty little sister!”: Why The Meat Rack was bigger and better than ever in 2024

Where the growth of the NYC Downlow is most noticeable, though, is The Meat Rack, which has doubled in size. The Meat Rack is essentially the Downlow’s ‘Room Two’, but has its own distinct vibe. Dark and intimate, it’s a sweltering enclave away from the dazzling extravagance of the main room . “It’s really heads down,” says Block9’s other co-founder Stephen Gallagher, speaking ahead of the 2024 opening. Phones and camera are not welcome inside, so you’ll have to use your imagination if you’ve not been, but picture a shadowy, steamy room housed inside steel walls, with only low-level red lighting to dampen the murk.

While praise for the Downlow as a whole has been sung from the rooftops for years, The Meat Rack has flown more under-the-radar. ‘Glastonbury tips’ websites call it a “secret bar”, and there are internet forum threads questioning where and what it is. The reality is it’s been a publicised part of the main venue since first opening in 2016, with its entrance found in ‘The Goods Yard’, the outdoor area for toilets, smoking or catching a breath of air. It’s not the first Downlow ‘Room Two’, which started as The Downlow Radio in 2011, before The Meat Rack came in when the venue was rebuilt in its meatpacking warehouse guise five years later. Initially the size of a “postage stamp”, as Stephen puts it, The Meat Rack is the Downlow’s headsy hideaway. “It’s minimal, it’s stripped-back, small lighting rig, fat soundsystem. The main Downlow has lots of spectacular stuff going on, lots of stuff to see. The Meat Rack is really all about the dancefloor,” says Stephen.

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These qualities have made for some special moments and locked-in crowds over the years, and now DJs who generally play much bigger stages jump at the opportunity to helm its decks. After a Groove Armada set at the sizeable Stonebridge Bar was cancelled on Thursday over crowd control concerns, the duo’s Andy Cato played b2b with Grace Sands in The Meat Rack the following night. Elsewhere across the weekend the likes of Peach, Moxie, Subb-an and Shay Malt stepped up, along with rising and experienced selectors such as Scarlett O’Malley, Deptford Northern Soul Club and Greg Belson. The decision to double the capacity for 2024 proved a masterstroke with the space packed out and popping off throughout the weekend.

“NYC Downlow has been my go-to late-night spot at Glastonbury for years now, but for the first time this year I spent equal time at the Meat Rack,” says Moxie, who played on Friday night to a sweaty crowd. “The great thing about both these spaces is that you don’t immediately know where the DJ booth is, so as someone entering the room, you’re forced to just dance and not think about anything else. It’s so dark and smokey in there, you’re instantly lost within the space.”