DJing is an art, a craft, and even a sport. For the past 38 years, British company DMC has hosted an official world championship for DJs who use vinyl records to battle each other on turntables. The idea is to combine musicality, technique, and confidence to shock, surprise, entertain, and show who’s the best. The competition is most often held in London, but this week, the Technics DMC DJ World Finals will take place in San Francisco for the first time (Fri/3, 8pm, The Midway, SF)

According to Christie Z., who serves as DMC’s longtime US branch manager and the organizer of this event, DJs and enthusiasts of battle DJ culture from around the world are flying to San Francisco to watch 20 international competitors compete across two categories.

“One is the classic battle that we’ve been doing since 1985,” she explained. New Zealand’s DJ K-Swizz will be defending that title. “Everybody does a six-minute set to win first, second, or third. The second battle is the battle for DMC Supremacy and it’s a head to head battle. That one is two rounds, 90 seconds each round, and it has about four competitors this year.”

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