Welcoming Rinse FM to the Patio

Rinse FM x GALA ’26

In 1994, a group of teenagers broadcast their first signal from a kitchen in a council flat in Bow. Jungle on 1210s. An aerial pushed out of a window. If you were in the right postcode, you could hear it.

Over the next decade, Rinse moved between tower blocks, lift shafts, empty flats and rooftops across East London. Transmitters locked into air vents. Equipment carried in backpacks. Switched off. Switched back on. Again and again.

By the late 90s, the station was central to the shift from jungle into garage.
In the early 2000s, MC culture sharpened into what would become grime.
Later, dubstep found a home on its airwaves – long before the sound travelled globally.

@galafestival Music history lesson on one of our favourite #radio stations #rinsefm #grime #ukg ♬ Silence… – City of Dawn

Rinse didn’t ask for a frequency, they just took one. It became a place to test dubs, try lyrics, build an audience. For many artists, it was the first time London heard them.

Three decades on, the throughline is still clear.

And on Friday 22 May that history lands in Peckham Rye Park as Rinse takes over the Patio at GALA ‘26.

 

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