Mediaboss Marketing

When most of us picture a game of bingo, we imagine a silent hall while the caller can be heard, shouting out a series of numbers while players frantically blot their card with giant marker pens, with the aim of declaring "house!" and wining a prize.

It's a hugely popular activity, with bingo halls around the country welcoming thousands of players each week. Now, while Bingo Loco loosely follows this concept - silence is most certainly out of the question, with debauchery, mayhem and music an important factor in creating a party atmosphere. And it's coming to Kanteena in Lancaster on Friday, April 8.

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It is the brainchild of co-founders Craig Reynolds and Will Meara who were taken by the rising trend of drag and gameshow bingo, with events such as Bongo's Bingo already well established in the UK. The duo, who were later joined in running the business by friend Stephen Lawless, were inspired to set up their own version by the unlikeliest of sources.

In 2016, Will and Craig were backpacking in Northern Iraq and they stumbled across a mess hall of Peshmerga soldiers who were playing bingo with Arabic numbers.

"Not having a clue what was happening we gamified the experience into a drinking game at our own table which soon expanded to tables all around us, " Will explained to LancsLive.

"Seeing how everyone could unify so easily around Bingo and how easy it was for people to engage with, it didn't take long to cook up our very own wild child bingo rave. "

"Our first show, we didn't really know what we were doing. It was five-hours long, the team were drenched in sweat and the audience couldn't get enough and so they kept coming back again and again".

Now, the founders are taking the show on the road in the UK this spring, starting in Northern Ireland on April 3, then heading to a n umber of other venues before reaching Lancaster.

Will, Stephen and Craig have also planned a tour of shows in the United Arab Emirates, have already hosted events in America and Canada and have also expanded to Australia. The entrepreneurs have a background in event and gig promotion, marketing start ups and commercial executives and as a result have a "well rounded" set of skill and experience.

Once they had settled on an idea, the Dublin-based trio got to work to build a team of performers, including DJs, dancers and event managers from a huge pool or people they had worked with over the years. We did a small trial run to 100 of our friends and the feedback was insane, "Will added, who admits they were "winging it" at the beginning.

"It was not the well oiled, high end production it is today mind you. "Initially for the first year we worked hard on making our shows popular in Dublin but it wasn't before long it spread to all around Ireland and we began popping up in cities like New York, Sydney and Vancouver."

The first-ever event was held in a basement club in Dublin and post covid-lockdowns, Will hopes they can continue to bring the chaos, music nostalgia and fun to new places, with an "insatiable appetite" for their type of entertainment.

Will added: "We specialise in getting groups together to sing, laugh, dance, play games and enjoy an interactive spectacle for the night. "Our shows in Kanteena in Lancaster, such a unique and special venue are truly a real highlight for us".

Read this article:
Soldiers in Iraq and how they inspired the launch of Lancaster's new bingo rave - Lancs Live