About Us

The initiative was originally thought up by Anne Duncan from Bridge of Don, Aberdeen. During a chat with staff at Sport Aberdeen Anne said she missed going dancing with her husband, Bill, who is living with dementia. When discovering that the staff at The Foundry on Holburn Street, Aberdeen are all dementia awareness trained and that the manager, Kieran Joseph, was keen to support an afternoon session, Boogie in the Bar took off in March 2017.

The Boogie events are a way for people to combat loneliness and social isolation, to get together during the day and enjoy themselves in a warm, people friendly environment where everyone is made to feel welcome and included regardless of their age, disabilities, etc. They are a chance to get together with like minded Boogiers listening, dancing or shuffling in your seat to hits from the 50s right up to present day. Boogies are dementia positive though not dementia exclusive and in the first year has supported hundreds of people across Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland to get out, get up and get dancing.

In October 2017 Boogie in the Bar won the Best Community Support Initiative at Scotland's Dementia Awards. In September 2018 they were invited back to the awards ceremony in Glasgow to showcase what had been happening in the intervening year. The Boogie now have a portable display board which, through newspaper stories, photographs, feedback and our calendar, illustrates how we grew from the Original Boogie to 17 Boogies across Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland. We had also been invited to attend the Grampian Dementia Conference held at the AECC in the summer and both these events generated enormous interest, so the word was spreading.........until the covid-19 pandemic put a stop to all events in March 2020.

Since the UK opened up again there are now 5 Boogies up and running – 4 in Aberdeen and 1 in Guernsey.

Each event is different and tailored to the needs of the community and their location.