The inaugural competition kicked off in October 2002 when a story was posted on the mikedolbear.com website, inviting young drummers from around the UK to enter the first annual Young Drummer of the Year competition. The competition was put together to give the country’s young drumming talent a national and indeed international platform, which we hope will be the first steps in their musical career.

Since then, the event has seen tremendous growth. It has established itself as an internationally recognised event, attracting an ever increasing number of entries and seeing the very best in terms of drumming talent.  Sponsorship from various high profile companies has meant that the competition has continued to improve, both in terms of popularity and scale of production.

The finals of the competition are held in February at a central location (venue yet to be announced for this year’s event). A great team of volunteers are assembled for the event each year, all helping to make it a fantastic experience for the competitors and audience alike.

In the year following the finals, the winner is kept very busy! Past winners have made numerous TV and radio appearances, as well as support slots for the like of Billy Ward and Thomas Lang, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez and Stanton Moore and every winner traditionally opens the UK Drum Show in Manchester.

Finalists have also performed with Jojo Mayer, Dave Weckl, JR Robinson, Aaron Spears, Chris Coleman and Benny Greb.