Apricot Ballroom are an audiophile party, soundsystem, record label, and DJ duo based out of Sheffield. Made up of Joi La Frique + Nonna Fab, the best friends have been running the party together for 5 years, and have cemented their place amongst the best of their city’s cultural institutions by bringing a friendly, community driven atmosphere to the late night dance.
Over the past year the party has begun to draw national and even international attention, regularly drawing attendees from all over the UK, and even being picked out as one of “the most banging parties in the country” by Time Out Magazine.
The duo of Nonna Fab and Joi La Frique are the trusty resident DJs and hosts of the Apricot parties, and their vibrant, electric b2b sets are a cornerstone of the party, and are fast becoming a fixture of festivals, club nights, and hifi bars across the country. DJing together for 6 years, and for a combined 18+ years between them, their joyous DJ sets thread together the breadth of their musical tastes and influences, and join the musical dots between funk, soul, house, street soul, dub, jazz and more, all pieced together with a focus on high fidelity production and psychedelic styles. Their sets at the likes of Westival, Wildwood Disco, and The List – three fast growing and highly rated UK festivals – went down for many as highlights of the festivals, being picked out in nationwide publications as such.
Joi La Frique, the speaker-tweaker of the two, has devoted much of the last five years to building and customising the party sound-system, adding bits and pieces over the years to bring their dancefloor closer to the music that rocks their party. That energy carries through to his ever expanding record collection, stuffed full of dancefloor friendly sounds from all around the world, crossing every genre he can squeeze into the rapidly dwindling storage spaces.