Soon the Dart World Championships will start again. I went there last year so you are going to read my honest review and opinion on it! I watch the Dart World Championship usually every year on the TV, but I wanted to check it out in person.
What is the Ally Pally?
Ally Pally is the nickname for Alexandra Palace, which is an event hall in London / England. Every year around Christmas and the New year the Dart World Championship is being held here. People from all over the world are coming, dressing up stupidly and getting basically drunk.
What is important to know?
You are not allowed to put anything football related on, like a jersey or a flag of a specific team, to avoid violence.
People are drunk and football fans in Europe and especially England are quite known for beating each other up for stupid reasons.
It is really expensive to get anything to drink, the tickets in general are also quite expensive and you are watching only on the big screen, because you can’t see the actual dartboard as well.
People are singing and celebrating the whole time, during a match and it is getting quite loud, so if you prefer a chill time, you are at the wrong place.
At the entrance, where you can buy food and drinks, there are many places where you are able to win something. You can win merchandise, drinks and money without paying. It is a great atmosphere, but if you want to come there to see actual darts, you are better off watching from home.
When the session is done, they’re gonna kick you out quickly.
ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY
When a dart player is throwing 3 times in the triple 20, you get the highest possible points in 3 throws. The people are celebrating a lot and it happens a few times in every game and that is quite exciting.
Especially when the games are tight, the atmosphere is getting wild and it is exciting to be part of it. It is even more exciting, when a fans favorite is playing, or when there are games like a German against an English, that happened when I was there. The German player actually won and it wasn’t expected.
So the crowd was hyped and you will be drawn into it.
What are the prices?
*1 Pound is today 1,14 Euro
- Roughly 8 Pounds for a pint, which is roughly a half liter.
- For bad seats 55 Pounds (this is the official price, but getting officially tickets is hard and at second market its usually a hundred Euros)
- 65 Pounds for table seats, downstairs with better view
How to get there?
- Most people take the train, just google Alexandra Palace and take the train suggested, depending where you are located.
- Walking and explore the city
- Taxi, but obviously really pricy
From the train station, you can reach it quite easily. It is up a mountain though.
Germany vs England
Over the past years, more and more people from Germany are finding their way to Ally Pally. You can hear many German songs being sung at the event and often beating the English by volume. I went to two events and at both it felt like at least 40% were Germans.
I personally found it quite exciting and shouted obviously as well.
What are people wearing?
We all went dressed up as alcohol bottles, I as Jack Daniels, we had Tequila, beer, Chardonnay and so on. The best part was, we found another group which had the missing bottles in their group.
There are people coming as super heroes, as bees, as cowboys and just as everything you can imagine. Try out something unique to not finding yourself with hundreds of people with the same costume.
Little tip, you for sure should dress up, it would be weird if you are not dressed up. Besides at the VIP seats, there is everyone dressing up as something and it is fun to do so.
Can I recommend going to the Dart World Championship?
If you watch it at home a lot and you don’t mind the noise and the high amount of drunk people, yes why not. It is a cool event, but it is really pricey, so I don’t know if I will come back. For the price of the tickets and everything I could travel to some nice place instead.
For a one time experience, it is for sure fun, but you could get the same atmosphere at so many other places, sometimes for free or for little money! You don’t miss much if you are not going, but it is for sure an experience and I don’t regret it.
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