Drum & Bass on the Bike's fifth Bournemouth ride

Bournemouth has a habit of turning its streets into something other than a thoroughfare, and this past weekend was no exception. On Sunday 9 August, the Drum & Bass on the Bike ride rolled back into town for its fifth year here, with thousands of cyclists, skaters and scooter riders filling the roads for a ride built around a day of drum and bass.

The route took in a good chunk of the coast. Riders gathered at Kings Park before heading through Pokesdown and Southbourne, eventually finishing the journey over in Boscombe. The start at Kings Park alone drew crowds that stretched as far as the eye could see, which is about the only way to describe the scale of it once you are standing in the middle of it.

At the heart of the whole thing is Dom Whiting, who has been leading the event since its first Bournemouth outing in 2021. He has been open about how much the ride has grown, admitting he never expected it to get this busy. Addressing the crowd, he spoke about the importance of keeping the event going, framing it as a way of showing support for the area and its community. "You are one of only two locations I’ve managed to visit every year since the beginning," he said of Bournemouth, and he urged people to keep turning up, with the line "if you don't use it you lose it" summing up the sentiment behind it.

For a lot of the people riding, the appeal is as much about the community as the music. The Krog and Webbs family, who have been taking part for several years and keep bringing more relatives along each time, described it as a whole family thing. Mark and Claire, who live just across the road and first got involved four years ago after deciding to check it out on a sunny day, called the atmosphere buzzing and reckoned this year was the biggest and busiest yet. A first-time group of five, Josh, Shealan, Katy, Raluca and Donna, had heard about it through word of mouth and came down for the first time, with Shealan talking about how important it is to get out into the community.

That community thread runs through the whole day. Between the families who make it an annual fixture and the first-timers who turn up on a whim, the ride tends to pull in people who might not otherwise spend their Sunday on a bike. One rider summed it up simply, calling it amazing what people can create.

If you missed this one, the ride has become a bit of a fixture on the local calendar, so it is worth keeping an eye out for when it comes around again. For now, the 2026 edition is the one to look back on as the benchmark for how big the event has grown since it first landed here five years ago.