Events

 There's something going on all the time... so how do you find it?

The term Event can cover a whole multitude of sins!
Most small weekly record hops will take place in a single room with a dance floor, last a few hours and have music played by a DJ, while monthly events will often feature both bands and DJs. All day events, surprisingly known as All Dayers, usually feature multiple bands or DJs and often take place in larger venues with more than one room for dancing and bands as well as catering. Taking it up a gear, you'll find the Weekenders, Vintage Festivals and events up to a week long which can take place at multiple venues in a town or city and feature dozens of Bands and DJs.
All these events will cater for different people, tastes and music and may have a bias towards live musicians, socialising or dancing.

To get the best out of an event, you need to know what it has to offer, what you want to get out of it, how far you want to travel and how much you want to spend. Events can involve anything from a midweek record hop to a week abroad taking in a city break during a weekender, so get as much information as possible before you book.
Things to consider might include bands or DJs, the size and quality of the dancefloors, your accommodation or the bars and beers available.
It will also depend on how deeply you're into the scene: there are events to cater for everyone from the the occasional music fan to the traditional Teds and Rockabillies.

When you're starting to visit events for the first time, this can be quite a lot to juggle, so ask around, join some Social media groups and browse YouTube :)

When you first start looking, it's easy to miss things because there's no one source to advertise all these events. However, a couple of the sites do reasonably well:

The Complete UK Rock n Roll Gig Guide allows you to search through Gigs by filtering them on geographical regions, or searching specifically for the name of a band, or by looking for Special Events. It covers everything from small weekly Record Hops to Weekenders BUT relies on the event organisers contacting the website to add the events, so it's only as good as the event organisers.

The Facebook rockin' gig guide allows anyone, including event organisers, to post details of events with posters. This means that events can be added and updated very quickly, but the posts themselves will quickly move down the page so you often have to scroll for a while to find things. The downside is that you sometimes get different posts with original and updated information about the same event which can be confusing.

The Bettajive Review visits and reviews 1940s and 1950s events all over the UK, presenting in-depth and entertaining commentary on the music, bands and scene.

Big Events and Weekenders

There are lots of big events and festivals, but some of them don't appear on all the Gig Guides. These tend to be hugely successful events that don't need the advertising because everyone already knows about them. Great if you've been on the Scene for a while but hard to find for newcomers!

So, in no particular order, here are the some promo videos for a few of the many big events to give you idea of what to expect:

Got a promo video for an event to add to this list? This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.