Colourful outfits, songs and a celebration of darts as Grand Slam comes 'home' to Wolverhampton

The doors of WV Active Aldersley were officially opened on Saturday for the first session of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) Mr Vegas Grand Slam of Darts, Wolverhampton's annual week of welcoming some of the best players in the world.

The first of 12 sessions across nine days brought along friends and families determined to have a good day out, enjoy a few drinks from the bar, buy some merchandise and watch eight matches from their seats or their tables.

It was a fun, loud and convivial atmosphere, with popular songs such as "Stand up if you love the darts" to the tune of Go West being sung, as well as the chanting of "Chase the Sun" whenever the broadcasters Sky Sports went to a break.

Some of the players received especially loud cheers, including Women's Matchplay champion Beau Greaves, who was playing in her first Grand Slam, and Welshman Jonny Clayton, while pantomime villain Gerwyn Price got a mixed reception, but still got cheers during his match.

It was a fun atmosphere, with loud cheers for 180s and large checkouts, and again showed why Wolverhampton had become the home of the Grand Slam, in the same way that Blackpool is the home of the World Matchplay and the Eissporthalle in Frankfurt is synonymous with the World Cup.

The tournament has been in the city since 2007, starting at the Civic Hall and moving to Aldersley in 2018, and PDC media manager Dave Allen said they loved coming back to the city every year.

He said: "We always love coming to Wolverhampton since it began 16 years ago and it's become a real home for the Grand Slam and people always look forward to it coming back every year.

"We had some great years at the Civic and Aldersley has now become a real home for the event as we have had some fantastic crowds, especially since going back post-Covid, and we're actually above 2,000 tickets more than last year, so the venue is really growing.

"You couldn't imagine this tournament taking place anywhere else and we wouldn't want to take it anywhere else and, ultimately, it's a tournament over nine days, so it's a long stretch for an event and you need somewhere that can cater for midweek events - and WV Active does that."

Dave said the tournament had gone to the Civic as a previous PDC chief executive had wanted a tournament in the region and found the Civic Hall to be perfect at the time, but the PDC had also shown faith in Aldersley by going there and planning to stay there for the foreseeable future.

He said: "There's a bigger capacity at Aldersley and although the Civic is back open, it wouldn't have been able to increase its capacity due to various logistical reasons, so our long-term plan is to stay at Aldersley and we're delighted with everything we get out of the venue.

"The tickets went on sale four months ago and people didn't know who they were coming to watch, but they just come along to enjoy the event, wear fancy dress and have a big day out, so we always love seeing them in their outfits and enjoying their time with us, whether that's one session or a whole weekend.

"I will say as well that the players love it, especially Gerwyn Price as he's won three times out of four there - but all the players come and say it's a great venue and the fans create a really great atmosphere and make it fun for the players.

"If you haven't got tickets yet, be quick as there's not many left and some sessions are filled, but other have availability, so be quick and come to enjoy what promises to be a fantastic week."

To find out more about the event and to buy tickets, go to pdc.seetickets.com/tour/grand-slam-of-darts.