# Europe's Biggest Dance Show

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.
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.
   * 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. 🤓
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. 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.
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.

## 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 | 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 |
| Germany | RBB (ARD) | Fritz [de] | Berlin | 2019 | 2024 | 7 |
| Ireland | RTÉ | RTÉ 2FM | Dublin | 2019 | 2022 | 5 |
| Ireland | RTÉ | RTÉ Pulse | Dublin | 2024 | 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 | 2023 | 1 |
| Sweden | SR | SR P3 | Stockholm | 2019 | 2024 | 7 |
| Ukraine | Suspilne | Radio Promin [uk] | Kyiv | 2022 | 2024 | 3 |
| United Kingdom | BBC | BBC Radio 1 | 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 |
| 2019 | 11–12 October | 8 | Belgium  France  Germany  Ireland  Netherlands  Sweden  United Kingdom |
| 2020 | 8–9 May | 8 | Belgium  France  Germany  Ireland  Netherlands  Sweden  United Kingdom |
| 2020 | 23–24 October | 9 | Belgium  Finland  Germany  Ireland  Netherlands  Norway  Sweden  United Kingdom |
| 2021 | 29 October | 9 | Austria  Belgium  Finland  Germany  Ireland  Norway  Sweden  United Kingdom |
| 2022 | 14 October | 11 | Austria  Belgium  Finland  Germany  Ireland  Netherlands  Norway  Sweden  Ukraine  United Kingdom |
| 2023 | 22 September | 11 | Austria  Belgium  Estonia  Finland  Germany  Norway  Spain  Sweden  Ukraine  United Kingdom |
| 2024 | 20 September | 11 | Austria  Belgium  Estonia  Finland  Germany  Ireland  Norway  Sweden  Ukraine  United Kingdom |