Forget the blue rinse brigade – Bingo Loco has turned the traditional game on its head, with dance-offs, DJs, lip-sync battles and ‘insane’ prizes up for grabs. Gayle Ritchie went along to one of the ‘world-famous bingo rave parties’.
It’s 6.30pm on a Friday night and Aberdeen’s Douglas Hotel is filling up fast.
Gaggles of women (and some men) swarm round the entrance to the venue’s vast hall, most lining up for boozy shots, cocktails or drinks tokens.
There’s an arguably obscene amount of flesh on display – legs, midriffs and cleavages sway and heave before me.
Dressed in jeans and a black and white top, I feel a wee bit prim and proper – like a stiff, disapproving Victorian maid.
I’d been invited to Bingo Loco by a group of female friends – we’re all into horses – and the plan was, more or less, to get tipsy, have a giggle, and get to know each other a bit better.
If you’ve never heard of Bingo Loco before – I hadn’t – it’s not simply localised bingo. No siree!
It has precisely nothing to do with deadpan dabber-gripping ladies of a certain age fussing at blue rinses and whiling away sedate afternoons in musty village halls.
Sweeping the globe
So what indeed is this phenomenon that’s sweeping the globe, taking over venues from Aberdeen to Aberystwyth, Dundee to Dublin, Perth to Peterhead and beyond?
Billed as a “world-famous bingo rave party” with pop anthems, confetti showers, stage games, singalongs, lip-syncing, dance-offs and ‘insane’ prizes up for grabs, Bingo Loco is all about making “some big noise” and celebrating “madness and debauchery”.
In the words of one of the promoters, it’s a “trip down memory lane with banging pop anthems and huge, flashing sparks of chaos”.
I’ll be honest – I was almost dreading this “fun” night out although was of course keen to hang out with my pals and curious to see what all the fuss was about.
The advice is to arrive early to secure seats as it’s a case of first come, first served, and it would be a bit rubbish to be sat with complete strangers.
We manage to find six seats together – bingo – and go in pairs to buy more drinks at the crazy busy bar.
Madness
Then the madness begins. Confetti is fired from canons, glow sticks are dished out, a rumbling bass line pumps through the speakers, and the hosts, dressed in wacky bingo-themed shirts, encourage us to get ready for a “night to remember – forever”.
The first tune the DJ blasts at us is the cheesy 1999 smash-hit We Like to Party (The Vengabus) by Dutch Europop band The Vengaboys, which is apparently Bingo Loco’s ‘national anthem’. Any inhibitions immediately fly out the window.
We’re all on our feet, singing along, dancing, twirling our glow sticks in the air and exchanging stupid grins. We hadn’t expected things to kick off quite so quickly.
The bingo starts with the cheeky MC calling out numbers and making all sorts of cringeworthy comments and innuendos.
The game itself is played as normal, with six panels to a card, although not being a bingo expert I remain fairly clueless until someone explains what the heck I’m supposed to be doing. There are prizes for matching a single line, two lines and three lines.
Insane prizes
Having read up on the quirky range of stage ‘games’, I’ve got mixed feelings about whether I want to win – at all.
Sure, I’d love to clinch a trip to Vegas or Ibiza but at what cost? Just how low would would-be winners need to stoop? I’m about to find out.
The first prize up for grabs is a six-pack of Strongbow. I secretly breathe a sigh of relief when my numbers don’t come up and a woman with a very short skirt staggers through the crowd and up onto the stage to stake her claim.
“You’ll need to down a can of it if you want to win!” beams the host, and she gulps it down without a second’s hesitation.
A few more drinks, party tunes – Queen’s Another Ones Bites the Dust, Lou Bega’s Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of…) – and it’s time for the second prize. A glow-in the dark-sex toy. I’m praying I won’t win.
However one of my friends, who will remains nameless, does. Mortified, she slinks towards the stage, her blushes hidden in the darkness.
“Hooray! Well done! But you’re not getting your hands on this fantastic prize as easily as that!” says the host.
“Lie down and pick up the sex toy with your mouth to win!”
Will she embrace this absolutely awful act of humiliation?
I’m pretty sure she’d rather not, but the peer pressure is such that it would be worse to turn down the challenge and walk away with your tail between your legs feeling foolish and like a bit of a party pooper. So she does as she’s told.
The crowd erupts in laughter and cheering as she successfully collects her prize and holds it aloft for all to see.
Back at the table, we’re all in stitches as we inspect the toy, poke and prod at it, and swill more booze, bursting with anticipation (and a degree of fear) to see what the next offering could possibly be.
Cue more tunes
As the bingo progresses, the numbers cue more tunes. “Is anyone reaching for a full line yet?” results in Reach by S Club 7.
And when number five is called, everyone goes wild to Dolly Parton’s legendary 9 to 5.
Other trip-down-memory-lane tunes include Chelsea Dagger by the Fratellis, Summer of ‘69 by Bryan Adams, Rock DJ by Robbie Williams, Hey Ya! by OutKast, Cotton Eye Joe by Rednex, and Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom by The Vengaboys.
At one point we’re encouraged to ‘gie a bosie’ to the person next to us – a Doric term meaning to hug someone. I take my hat off to the creators for bothering to learn a bit of local north-east lingo.
As the evening progresses, more prizes are given out including a cardboard cut-out of Buddy the Elf which is pretty random, a giant teddy bear, a Polaroid camera, and finally, the big one, a holiday for two in Barcelona with flights and accommodation.
Sometimes lawn mowers, strimmers, mobility scooters and even bags of rubbish are ‘gifted’ but not tonight.
“We always say ‘leave with more than just a fish and chips under your arms!’ shouts the MC.
Up and dancing
The madness runs on until 11pm and while most folk are up on their feet dancing to every tune until the bitter end, there are a few who fall by the wayside, sitting down and vaguely clapping along.
It’s no surprise really – it’s quite a long night and while the 18- year-olds among us might have endless energy, the 88-year-olds aren’t quite so full on.
The final round of wild rave music gets pretty much everyone dancing as Darude’s Sandstorm, Dizzee Rascal’s Bonkers and Whigfield’s iconic Saturday Night are blasted out at top volume.
Strangers become temporary best friends as we leap and hurl ourselves around, form conga lines and grin inanely.
While we have free rein to behave badly, one thing that is absolutely forbidden at Bingo Loco is standing on seats or tables.
A couple of lads do this and are immediately told to get down by scary-looking security staff. Fair enough – nobody wants to have an accident or ruin the furniture.
Absolute blast
Despite my earlier misgivings, I realise I’m having an absolute blast. Bingo Loco is hilarious, smutty fun but delivered pretty slickly.
It’s a recipe for success: a pop culture phenomenon which thrives on ribaldry and will no doubt continue to captivate for years to come.
It’s what so many of us have been waiting for – uninhibited, silly, theatrical nonsense with friends – and it’s a sell-out success wherever it goes.
Where to play?
In Scotland you can play Bingo Loco in Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Glasgow, Stirling, Peterhead, Ellon, Glasgow, Greenock, Renfrew, Kilmarnock, Ayr, Hamilton, Inverness, Falkirk, Edinburgh and even Wick.
Further afield, you can join the fun in Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Darwin.
The entire empire, from booking venues and selling tickets to on-the-ground logistics, is operated from its true home of Dublin.
It’s what so many of us have been waiting for – uninhibited, silly, theatrical nonsense with friends – and it’s a sell-out success wherever it goes.”
GAYLE RITCHIE
The concept, which was founded by three young Irish entrepreneurs, William Mears, Craig Reynolds, and Stephen Lawless, has the strangest backstory.
Backstory
In 2016, William and Craig gained international fame when they backpacked through Iraq and found themselves embedded with the Kurdish Peshmerga on the frontline of the battle with ISIS.
The Peshmerga had learned how to play bingo from US troops, and invited the lads along to a night in a communal hall.
They didn’t understand Arabic and hadn’t got a clue was going on – so they made up their own rules, more or less inventing a bingo drinking game on the spot.
The soldiers all joined in, and suddenly they had the winning ingredients for Bingo Loco.
“We gamified the experience into a drinking game at our own table which soon expanded to tables all around us,” explains William.
“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.”
Back home in 2017, the lads launched their very first official show, at Twenty Two nightclub in Dublin.
They admit it was “a bit of a mess” and “nobody knew what they were doing” during the sweaty five-hour session, but it worked, word spread, people were hooked, and soon they were selling out shows across Ireland.
Big demand
Demand then led to them running Bingo Loco in countries all around the world.
Hosts ‘reimagine’ shows for different locations, which is an endearing touch.
In Glasgow, for example, the ’ rave round’ is modified to a ‘Bucky round’ in celebration of Buckfast, with shots of the local tonic wine handed out to revellers.
In Aberdeen, parties are tweaked to incorporate local phrases such as the aforementioned ‘gie’s a bosie’.
If they can localise prizes, they will, so in Dundee you might win The View’s latest single and in Perth you might just be lucky enough to bag a St Johnstone FC football top.
As well as the apparently infamous sex toy, you can win massive holiday trips, champagne, bottles of spirits and local whiskies and even a cardboard cut-out of Boris Johnston… although you’ll normally spot that in a bin 10 minutes after the show.
Debauchery, mayhem and music
It’s a carefully planned strategy which shows no sign of fatigue with many players returning time and again to enjoy the absolute debauchery, mayhem and music.
The average player is said to be aged between 23 and 38, and there are many more women than men – around 75% are female.
But everyone is welcome and whoever you are, however old you are, and from whatever background you hail, you’re sure to have a wild night out… if you’re prepared to lower your inhibitions and embrace all that Bingo Loco has to throw at you.
On a less upbeat note, you should also be prepared to catch Covid. With hundreds (and in some venues thousands) of people crammed into event spaces, there’s every chance a fair few of them are going to be carrying the virus.
Two of my pals developed it after our night at Bingo Loco but nobody was surprised.
Selfishly I was glad to have escaped it (and not to have been subjected to the humiliation of winning a giant sex toy) but these are risks you take if you head along.
With events planned across Scotland throughout summer and autumn, I highly recommend you get along to one nearby and enjoy!
- Bingo Loco is at Atik in Edinburgh on August 12, Church in Dundee on August 19, and Aberdeen’s Douglas Hotel on August 26.
- For more dates, tickets and information see bingo-loco.com/scotland
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