Europe's Biggest Dance Show

Europe's Biggest Dance Show

Genre	Dance
Running time	420 minutes (2019–May 2020) 480 minutes (October 2020) 270 minutes (2021) 330 minutes (2022–present)
Country of origin	Various countries
Language(s)	primarily English
Home station	BBC Radio 1 (2019–present) BBC Radio 1 Dance (2020–present)
Syndicates	Various broadcasters
Produced by	Dan Morris
Original release	11 October 2019 (2019-10-11) – present
No. of episodes	7 editions
Audio format	Stereophonic sound
Website	BBC Radio 1 EBU

Europe's Biggest Dance Show is an annual multinational dance music simulcast hosted by BBC Radio 1 in the United Kingdom, in collaboration with several European radio stations, all of which are owned by public broadcasters which are members of the European Broadcasting Union. The show reaches several millions of listeners all over Europe.

Background and history

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) announced on 27 September 2019 that it would join radio stations from seven other countries, and a potential audience of 18 million listeners, in hosting a one-off dance music simulcast on 11 October. ^[1]

The first simulcast began at 19:00 BST and ended at 02:00 BST on 12 October, with Annie Mac introducing for BBC Radio 1 in London. Seven radio stations across Europe joined the simulcast: 1LIVE, Fritz  [ de ], Mouv', NPO 3FM, RTÉ 2FM, SR P3 and Studio Brussel. Each radio station contributed an hour of dance music from their respective countries, except in the case of 1LIVE and Fritz, who contributed 30 minutes each from Cologne and Berlin respectively. Some stations chose to feature at least one live DJ set as part of their contribution. ^[2]

Dan Morris @DanDJMorris

Replying to @FutureHouseSelf @ahj

Lots of lines! Each participating station linked to us, we’ll mix the programme and then send the whole show back to participating stations. 🤓

11 October 2019 ^[3]

Each radio station sent their feeds to Broadcasting House in London, where they were mixed by BBC senior technical producer Dan Morris before being sent back to the radio stations for broadcast.

Despite the simulcast being billed as a one-off event, two subsequent editions of the simulcast were presented in May and October 2020 respectively, before it became an annual event, with new editions presented in the following years and more radio stations joining the simulcast. ^{[4] [5]} Since the 2021 edition, each participating radio station, including 1LIVE and Fritz, has contributed 30 minutes of dance music from their respective countries instead of an hour. ^[6]

In March 2024, BBC Radio 1 launched a spin-off event called Europe's Biggest Soundsystem Party alongside partner stations 1LIVE and Mouv'; this was followed in February 2025 by Europe’s Biggest Gig, with contributions from RTÉ 2FM, Studio Brussel, 1LIVE and, for the first time, Rás 2. ^[7]

Participating broadcasters

The following table lists the countries, broadcasters and radio stations that have participated in Europe's Biggest Dance Show as of 2023.

Table key

†	Inactive –countries which participated in the past but did not participate in further editions as of 2023

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Station(s)	City	Debut year	Latest participation	Appearances
Austria	ORF	FM4	Vienna	2021 [a]	2024	4
Belgium	VRT	Studio Brussel	Brussels	2019	2024	7
Estonia	ERR	Raadio 2	Tallinn	2023	2024	2
Finland	Yle	YleX	Helsinki	2020 (October)	2024	5
France †	Radio France	Mouv'	Paris	2019	2020 (May)	2
Germany	WDR (ARD)	1LIVE	Cologne	2019	2024	7
	RBB (ARD)	Fritz  [ de ]	Berlin	2019	2024	7
Ireland	RTÉ	RTÉ 2FM	Dublin	2019	2022	5
		RTÉ Pulse [b]		2024		1
Netherlands †	NPO	NPO 3FM	Amsterdam	2019	2022	4
Norway	NRK	NRK mP3	Oslo	2020 (October)	2024	5
Spain †	Catalunya Ràdio	iCat  [ es ]	Barcelona	2023		1
Sweden	SR	SR P3	Stockholm	2019	2024	7
Ukraine	Suspilne	Radio Promin	Kyiv	2022	2024	3
United Kingdom	BBC	BBC Radio 1 [c]	London	2019	2024	7

Editions

The following table lists the editions of Europe's Biggest Dance Show. Countries in bold are countries that made their debut in the simulcast in their respective years.

Year	Date(s)	Participants	Participating countries	Ref.
2019	11–12 October	8	Belgium  France  Germany  Ireland  Netherlands  Sweden  United Kingdom	[10]
2020	8–9 May	8	Belgium  France  Germany  Ireland  Netherlands  Sweden  United Kingdom	[4]
	23–24 October	9	Belgium  Finland  Germany  Ireland  Netherlands  Norway  Sweden  United Kingdom	[5]
2021	29 October	9	Austria  Belgium  Finland  Germany  Ireland  Norway  Sweden  United Kingdom	[11]
2022	14 October	11	Austria  Belgium  Finland  Germany  Ireland  Netherlands  Norway  Sweden  Ukraine  United Kingdom	[12]
2023	22 September	11	Austria  Belgium  Estonia  Finland  Germany  Norway  Spain  Sweden  Ukraine  United Kingdom	[13]
2024	20 September	11	Austria  Belgium  Estonia  Finland  Germany  Ireland  Norway  Sweden  Ukraine  United Kingdom	[14]

Notes

1. Although it did not participate in the October 2020 edition, FM4 broadcast the show as part of its weekly dance music show La boum de luxe. ^[8]
2. The 2024 iteration was simulcast on RTÉ 2FM's sister station, RTÉ Pulse, due to coverage of Culture Night on RTÉ 2FM. However, on-air imaging referred to RTÉ 2FM. ^[9]
3. Since the October 2020 edition, the show is simulcast on BBC Radio 1 and its sister station, Radio 1 Dance.

References

1. "BBC Radio 1 to host biggest dance show ever". BBC . 27 September 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
2. Mago, Mike (11 October 2019). "3FM doet mee aan Europe's Biggest Dance Show". NPO 3FM (in Dutch). Retrieved 16 October 2022.
3. Dan Morris [@DanDJMorris] (11 October 2019). "Lots of lines! Each participating station linked to us, we'll mix the programme and then send the whole show back to participating stations. 🤓" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
4. "BBC Radio 1 to host return of Europe's Biggest Dance Show". BBC . 17 April 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
5. Martin, Roy (16 October 2020). "Europe's Biggest Dance Show returns at Radio 1". RadioToday. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
6. "Das war: 1LIVE Europe's Biggest Dance Show mit Felix Jaehn". WDR (in German). 25 October 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
7. "BBC Radio 1 to host Europe's Biggest Gig". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 February 2025.
8. Schönauer, Matthias (23 October 2020). "Europe's biggest dance show: Europa tanzt vorm Radio". ORF (in German). Retrieved 15 October 2022.
9. "RTÉ celebrates Culture Night 2024 - everything you need to know". RTÉ.ie . RTÉ. 6 September 2024. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
10. Hofstadt, Jens F. (6 October 2019). "Acht Radiostationen präsentieren "Europe's Biggest Dance Show"". RADIOSZENE (in German). Retrieved 16 October 2022.
11. "BBC Radio 1 to host return of Europe's Biggest Dance Show". BBC . 8 October 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
12. "Ukraine joins Europe's Biggest Dance Show for the first time as it returns to BBC Radio 1". BBC . 5 October 2022. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
13. "Europe's Biggest Dance Show returns to BBC Radio 1 for 2023". BBC. 14 September 2023. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
14. "Europe's Biggest Dance Show is to return to BBC Radio 1". RadioToday. 5 September 2024. Retrieved 10 September 2024.

External links

• Europe's Biggest Dance Show at BBC Online