‘Cardiff was my favourite event we’ve ever done’: Jinky Sounds closes District with a bang

Jinky Sounds, a Durham-born music events company, “got Jinky” and sold out Cardiff venue District in September with a crazy lineup of Cardiff-based DJs, including Deep Cut Grooves, Fourth Base, Gand-Alf, Dante, Jens and Deeg.

With hopes to “push the boundaries of what it means to be a grassroots-led party,” Jinky Sounds certainly made its mark on Cardiff’s dance music crowd – and it’ll be back.

The Cardiff Tab spoke to founder Ollie de Gentile-Williams about the birth of Jinky Sounds, the Cardiff music scene, what makes Jinky unique, and what we can expect next. 

Who are ‘Jinky Sounds,’ and how did it all begin?

Ollie created Jinky Sounds in his second year at Durham University after getting involved in the electronic music and DJing scene. After a brand he was promoting suddenly got liquidated, Ollie realised there was a big gap in the market for good nightlife in Durham. 

Partnering with Dante McNichol, Jinky Sounds began: “We did our first event upstairs in a cocktail bar in Durham. We sold out, and that was when we realised it wasn’t just an idea of, ‘What if this could work?’ It actually could.”

It went on to do a second event, which sold out as well, cementing tits new title as an emerging popular brand in Durham.

A few shows later, it hosted its White Party and involved Paddy Harvey in the business, boosting its popularity further: “Before the end of my second year, we’d become, quite quickly, one of the most popular brands in Durham.

“Rather than settle there, we wanted to see how far we could expand it. I think we were all quietly confident that we had something going for us and the right foundations to take Jinky to other places. So we took a risk and did Gallery in London in August 2025, just over a year ago, and that sold out.” 

By Ollie’s third year, Jinky was an established brand across campus, but it was still looking to grow the name across the UK: “In January, about nine months ago, we did a Manchester show with MUSKI, which sold out. That was a big sign that the expansion was taking off. The same happened with Nottingham in June. We also did Invades in Newcastle, so by that point we had a few cities under our belt.

“Now, this year, instead of simply taking Jinky to new cities, we want to establish a proper base in them and make the brand have a huge presence.”

But what makes Jinky Sounds different to other event brands? It’s publicly backed by students and student-run, while also being more professional than your typical student-run brand. 

Ollie largely handles the business strategy and management, while his co-founders Dante and Paddy have been growing their profiles as artists: “They’ve received notable support from the likes of Salutre, Marco Carola and many more, with their tracks having been played worldwide in iconic venues such as DC-10 Ibiza. It’s a great reflection of the growth of our brand, both publicly and in our direction of sound and event quality.

“One of the main things we do when we arrive in each city is give a lot of power to students — whether that’s promoting, getting involved with content and music, helping to build line-ups, choosing shows and dates, or coming up with marketing ideas and techniques.

“But we also have the professional side, which is why we’ve been able to do huge events that attract more than a thousand people and build a reputation beyond just one university city.”

Where did the name ‘Jinky Sounds’ come from?

The name ‘Jinky Sounds’ was born at house raves in Ollie’s first year at university: “If a tune came on that we considered particularly “dutty” – please put that in quotation marks – we’d do that disgusted rave face and say things like, “I’m getting Jinky (or ‘jiggy’) to this.”

“It’s basically a made-up, onomatopoeic word for sudden, unpredictable dance moves where you love a track so much that you’re dancing naturally rather than forcing yourself to dance – one of those heads down, hands up moments. It just takes over. That’s the whole context of “getting Jinky”. You just dance, be free on the dance floor, enjoy the music, dance with your mates, and absolutely nothing else.

“So, in essence, ‘getting Jinky’ is not something to be lyrically described or prescribed, but instead a state of movement.

“When I was thinking of a name for the company, I expected to create a huge list and ask people, ‘Which is better, A, B or C?’ But Jinky immediately came to mind – whether it was Jinky Events or Jinky Sounds – and I had a really strong gut feeling that it had to be that. It was original. It was a made-up word between me and my mates, and it had all the authenticity I wanted the brand to have.”

Do you have any dream bookings or key inspirations?

As a deep-house label and brand that hosts its own events, Prunk’s PIV Records is one of Jinky Sounds’ original inspirations, booking a lot of artists associated with that scene.

Ollie told The Cardiff Tab: “Deep melodic house is a shared taste between the three of us. Accordingly, we’ve booked artists like Dennis Quin and Lewis Taylor before to fit that mould. Although we are starting to play a bigger variety of genres – obviously house is the big umbrella, then all the house subgenres. Alternative specific genres include garage, progressive stuff, hard house/hardgroove, 90s techno and maybe a bit of jungle if we get artists like DCG on. 

“I love a bit of jungle, but it’s not what our original crowds know us for. I think Cardiff would appreciate it, but we also have to think about keeping a consistent sonic brand identity. Ultimately, we curate our music on a show-by-show basis.”

“In terms of dream bookings, it depends on who you ask out of the three of us. Ruze, D Stone and Stassy are some shared favourites of ours. For me, Mall Grab, Joy Orbison, MPH, Chaos in the CBD or Benny Rodrigues – depending on the atmosphere, as I want our events to feel euphoric.

“There are so many house events going on at the moment, and a lot of them feel like very copy-and-paste ‘oonts oonts’ tech-house with little substance to them. We want to give you raw, emotive memories to reminisce on.”

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How do you think the District event went, and what did you think of the Cardiff crowd?

via @redixonphotography

Ollie told The Cardiff Tab that Cardiff is one of his favourite crowds that Jinky have ever played for: “I absolutely loved the Cardiff crowd, and I’m not just saying that. Even the effort with the promo before the show — there was a lot of excitement around it. I think the fact that we had to overcome the Misfits Monday crowd was interesting.

“There were high expectations because people already had that weekly routine, but I had a really good gut feeling about the night. And the DJ line-up was incredible. They were all student DJs, and they were unreal for different reasons.

“I genuinely think the night was a ten out of ten for us. The music was brilliant, the sound was incredible, and the venue was great.”

When asked about whether they’d like to expand on the live-music element, as Deep Cut Grooves did, Ollie told The Cardiff Tab: “Definitely. It’s all about giving people an experience they can actually remember, and I think a live-music element adds another layer and another dimension to what we’re doing. Sonically, it sounds great, and it’s slightly more unique than the classic house and garage we might otherwise play.

“But visually it’s also such a look. Kyle’s a pretty smooth guy, and having him at the front of the stage with the sax creates this synergy between how cool it looks visually and how good it sounds sonically. To close the night off, it’s perfect because they play at a higher BPM than most of the other DJs.

“Each set had its own unique direction and vibe, and I thought they all complemented each other really well. We’re quite particular about who plays because we always want to make sure we’re picking the very best the city has to offer. The bar is really high for us because the music matters so much. That has to be our selling point.

“It feeds into that whole euphoric, memorable atmosphere we want from an event.”

Other than its student origins, what makes Jinky unique? 

Jinky Sounds focuses on the details and goes that extra mile in promotion, adopting a unique marketing approach in the lead-up to the event: “I think we go above and beyond with the small details. We have an obsession with all those little things that you might not consciously notice but which, added together, make an event really memorable.

“Some of the boys said to me the next day that it was one for the history books.

“You could just get a random set of DJs, make a normal event poster and put on a standard club night, and people would probably have a seven-out-of-ten night. Obviously I’m biased, but I genuinely think everyone there had an incredible night. And that comes from the work done before the show itself — making the people running the event and helping with promotion properly involved.

“For instance, Tytus is my boy from uni’s best mate from home and promotes with us. But instead of just being your typical ‘rep’, we got him involved in interviews and added his style into the mix. Giving the brand new faces and personalities is something I don’t really see other brands doing to the same degree.

“Another example is that I sent Eva Morley and Ben Bushell 500 Jinky stickers each a couple of weeks ago. When they got to Cardiff for the first Misfits and YOLO events of the year, we used this guerrilla-marketing approach. They stuck Jinky stickers all over the bathroom mirrors.

“By the time we actually announce and launch an event, there’s already some anticipation — even if it’s just curiosity. There’s this combination between the name, which might sound trivial but is fun and catchy, the promotional style, the attention to detail, the sound we choose and all the content we make.

“It makes the brand feel more organic and meaningful to the students engaging with it. We’ve got a new style of content coming  that I don’t really see other brands doing — very still, focused, slow-motion shots of people dancing.”

What can we expect next from Jinky Sounds? Where do you want to go from here?

Missed out on Jinky Sounds at District? Don’t worry, they’ll be back!

“We’ll probably do two, maybe three, shows per term in Cardiff. We want them to feel climactic and like proper one-offs that people really want to go to, rather than doing something every week.

“One of the biggest things for us is cultivating excitement. If you’re at pre-drinks before a Jinky event, we want people to be genuinely giddy to go. And when they’re there, we want it to be something really memorable. So it could be doing one-off shows once a month at different venues, so no two Jinky events feel exactly the same, alongside really strong sound curation. There could even be house parties.”

“I’d say that if people want to join our Cardiff team, send us a DM on Instagram. We’re always looking for people who are really keen to get involved. As I said, we’re a student brand in many ways. We’d be nothing without a team of really keen people who genuinely want to make a difference to the nightlife experience in their city. At the end of the day, it’s not just a couple of guys just chucking any old event on; it’s a team of 40-ish people.

“It sounds a bit cringe when you word it like this, but there’s a huge amount of teamwork and collective effort involved in promoting and putting on an event that ultimately ends up being really memorable and fun. We take ourselves seriously because we want to grow the business and the brand. But all of this started from wanting to throw proper parties that were actually good, rather than just putting on “decent enough” club nights that your friends happen to go to. The fact that they’re actually good is so important.

“We’re not doing it for the sake of doing it. We’re doing it because we genuinely want to make a difference to people’s nightlife experience. It’s the kind of nightlife experience I wish I’d had.”

Featured image via Instagram @redixonphotography

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