Top Venue, saw the Hives there a few weekends ago and loved it.
This is my fav venue of the year so far.
There is a bar inside the staged area and a bar outside it too, cant have too many vodka watering holes in my opinion. Plenty of seating for us old folks outside and good views from everywhere inside. Everything about it was welcoming.
The venue is small enough to be very intimate and close to the stage yet big enough to get stack of people in and create a charged atmosphere.

Yeah - you're right, it is nice. Only went there for the first time last year. Bit of a bugger to find if you don;t know Sheffield though.

can anyone recommend anywhere to park near the octagon?

i usually just drive a bit further up the hill, turn round and park on the road facing down the hill back towards the octagon. never had any problems finding a space although you may sometimes have to walk for 5 mins.

sorry if this is annoying anyone, but i thought starting a fresh sheffield venue thread was stupid.
so, if you dont mind, i'd like to use this one to compare sheffield venues.

So far i've been to Casbah, Leadmill and Club Zero to see bands (though will be seeing Clutch at Corp soon) and would probably have to say that Club Zero was the best, although its a really small venue, and a larger band would probably not feel as at home in it, i felt the atmosphere was fantastic. i saw streetlight manifesto there, and met loadsa members of all three bands that night.

The Plug is a pretty good venue. I saw Four tet last year there and there was loads of space to sit down and I had a pretty good view even though I was at the back

I think anywhere in sheffield is a bugger to find, drove by The Boardwalk 3 times a while ago, and the roadworks don't help!

haha, yeah the boardwalk took me ages to find the first time.

Fusion, the universities other gig venue is far better than the octagon imo, I think it always feels a little like a school hall, and even when its sold out, its never crowded.

Leadmill is the best venue in sheff, mainly because wherever you stand you're guaranteed to feel you're at the front. Also, just generally pulls a good crowd. (plug is good too, but the stage is a little too narrow for my liking)