Last week we headed deep into East London for the launch of a new brand new design hotel next to London's ExCel Convention Center in the Docklands. The Aloft London Excel is the first Aloft hotel to open in the UK and is set to shake up the staid mid-market hotel sector by delivering urban-influenced design at prices we can all afford.The hotel launched with a digital art battle featuring artists from Cut & Paste and Secret Wars. Artists went head to head to create a piece of art inspired by a theme of ‘Innovation in East London.’ It was the first Cut & Paste Battle we had attended and we thoroughly enjoyed watching the artists battling it out with their artwork in front of a live audience. The winner on the night was decided by the guests in attendance, with Sam Bevington's design winning the crowds over. As part of digital art battle prize, the artist's winning artwork was projected onto the side of the hotel building pictured above. This was the first event which saw Cut & Paste collaborated with the London team at Secret Wars.
We arrived a bit too late to catch the Parkour performers 3RUN at the hotel, but we did bump into our friend and artist Mr Guaky who was taking part in the digital art battle as well as creating some live artwork in the hotel reception space. Renowned East London promoters Urban Nerds were also on hand at the launch providing some banging tunes, with Urban Knights, Rattus Rattus & Klose One and Sophie Lloyd all rocking the decks. A well organized launch party and our first at a hotel, a fun evening was had by all in this beautifully designed space. Plus we almost forget to mention the impressive cocktails at the hotels w xyz bar which were created by cutting-edge mixologist Ruth Ball of Alchemist Dreams!! Click here to check out the hotel.
