we.dj - The UK's new DJ tech show

We need we.dj. The UK DJ tech industry nearly didn’t have a dedicated show in 2024. The BPM show is now owned by Plasa, and is scheduled to return in 2025. We hope it does. So that made the calendar pretty bare for 2024. So huge credit to On The Rise and West End DJ for putting a brand new show together – we.dj, held at the Novotel West in Hammersmith London.

The gestation period for new live events is often over 12 months, this event came together in less than half of that time. Although tickets were free, registration was required, and it sold out over a week before. This shows the demand for this kind of event.

Unsurprisingly the XDJ-AZ was in big demand.

Why was we.dj worth attending?

Put it this way, we were originally only going to attend on the first day, Sunday 13th Oct but had such a good time we are going back again for the last day today. Why? – There was a huge amount of hardware to get your hands on (there’s nothing worse than events where you can’t actually play with any of the products on show -(Looking at you Cebit and CES). The attendee’s were clearly having a great time, there was a great vibe about the whole event. It was noisy, fun and a little chaotic, just like a good club night. We met with various well known DJs who had come to support the event – Prime Cuts, Mojaxx, DJ Ron, Jay Cunning, Master Pasha (Centerforce Radio), DJ Rap, Pogo, Rasp and Tommy Peanuts amongst others. The whole industry was there.

(Yes, we asked Ortofon how much for the huge Concorde’s. And no, you can’t afford them)

This wasn’t just a turntablist show, as the soundclashes you could hear from the crowd mixing on the various decks showed. We heard thumping techno, Afrobeats, trance and full-on DNB all being blasted out (often at the same time – the exhibitors staff are going to need to lie down in a quiet room for the rest of the week). It was just a great way to connect with your DJ peers, make connections or grab a bargain from West End DJ, and all of this for free.

dj.studio, Union Audio, Chauvet, JBL, InMusic, AlphaTheta, Phase, UDG were all in attendance plus many many more.

If you didn’t see our live coverage from the event on our Instagram – follow us here

What was the best thing we saw at we.dj?

It might have been show organiser Terry Atomic Hooligan casually producing a scratch masterclass as part of the soundcheck. It could have been listening to Uncle Dugs (Rinse FM/Kool FM) tales from the pirate radio days. It might have been seeing a 14 year old DJ Remag blow away the watching crowd (including some Alpa-theta staff) with a finally crafted DNB mini-mix after he hopped on the decks. But the most joyous moment was seeing DJ Mystikle Blue win a Hercules Inpulse T7 controller by winning the scratch battle. Well deserved, certainly made her long journey to the show worthwhile.