Swingamajig 2022 write-up

A little over two weeks okay was a great day; in fact, my favourite day of the year: Swingamajig. This festival – which is coming up to ten years now – is without a doubt the biggest date in the global electro swing calendar, and it was even more special this year, for it was the first time it has been held at its full scale since 2019. I spoke in 2020 about the online version of the event that was held under lockdown, and the festival also put on a scaled-down version of the party in September 2021, but this was the first time for three years that the organisers managed to put together a whole entire festival on the scale of past events.

Once again using the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, which is starting to feel like a wonderful new home for the event, the festival was sized up somewhat from 2019’s edition. Like in 2019, the main stage extended the venue’s bandstand for the larger acts throughout the day; and two of the indoor spaces within the grounds were used as well: one stage for the cabaret performances; along with the venue’s ballroom for the more traditional swing acts and dance classes. But on top of these, this year also saw the addition of the excellent Phat Sam’s Disco stage (pictured), built out of a classic Citreon and programming DJs throughout the day; along with the Speakeasy stage accommodating the more upbeat live acts. There was also a smaller sixth stage, programmed by Birmingham’s Swingmatism group.

As with 2019’s festival, once the Botanical Gardens closed for the night, the event carried on in a separate location, this time being at the Hockley Social Club on the other side of town. This was the first time Swingamajig had made use of this venue, and it was actually wonderful. Very very spacious, with both a big dancefloor but also multiple places to sit and chill out, it provided the perfect space to continue the party. The second room wasn’t as suitable as the main room admittedly, but it still provided ample opportunity to have a dance – with some excellent programming from Scour Records.

I’m not going to do and act-by-act rundown of everyone I saw in turn, but there were certainly some highlights. Elle & the Pocket Belles set the day off to a great start from the very beginning; and Mista Trick who performed with them also shone later on with his own live band. It’s the first time I’ve caught his new act, and the performance was exemplary – arguably the best of the daytime. Phat Sam and Emma Clair both played brilliant sets on the aforementioned Phat Sam’s Disco stage – which the former was of course running all day. And the Electric Swing Circus were consistently fantastic as ever, with some of their newest songs carrying considerable weight. It was a treat to see DJ Yoda headline, and although his set wasn’t too imaginative, it was nice to see him branch out into the electro swing genre. At the afterparty, Tuxedo Junction were phenomenal – those boys can simply do no wrong – and I also really enjoyed getting to see Spekrfreks perform for the first time too.

Yet again, the organisers of Swingamajig have pulled it all together to put on one of the best events of the season. I can only imagine how much work goes into running an event like this, and I have to applaud everyone involved for making the effort. Without fail, this is one of the highlights of my year, and with next year being the tenth anniversary, I am already preparing myself for the build-up. It’s interesting to keep track of the electro swing scene’s development; and whilst in certain areas it has somewhat stagnated, here – at the first and original festival for the genre – it is still alive, well, and entertaining crowds to the same degree it always has.