Radio 1's Big Weekend

Radio 1's Big Weekend

BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend (previously known as One Big Weekend, and for 2012 as Radio 1's Hackney Weekend) is a music festival run by BBC Radio 1. It is held once a year, in a different location within the United Kingdom each time. It is the biggest free ticketed music event in Europe and always includes a host of new artists.

The festival is a spin-off of Radio 1's 'One Big Sunday', where every Sunday during July and August, a different town would host the roadshow, usually next to a beach or in a large park. These were also free, but non-ticketed. A show in Falkirk in 1999 attracted in excess of 500,000 people, ten times the expected amount. People eventually had to be turned away.

Both the 'One Big Sunday' and 'One Big Weekend' events are successors to the Radio 1 Roadshow which toured the country during every summer from 1973 until the 1990s.

Originally a 'One Big Weekend' would run twice a year. The Saturday was dedicated to dance music and the Sunday to bands. But since 2005, the dance day has been replaced by a second day of bands. In 2005, the dance music took place on a second stage on the Saturday only and in 2006 it took place off site at a club on the Saturday night. The 'Saturday' of dance music was effectively reinstated for the 2013 event in Northern Ireland, but with the day of dance being held on the Friday of the weekend.

The Big Weekend was replaced by a larger festival in 2012, named 'Radio 1's Hackney Weekend', with a crowd capacity of 50,000. The event took place over the weekend of 23–24 June 2012 in Hackney, East London.

In 2013 the Big Weekend will be a three day event, and will be held in Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It will the first time that the Big Weekend has been held in the same city for a second time.

Read more about Radio 1's Big Weekend:  Venues, Tickets, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005

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