Collective Spotlight: Stretch Collective
In this series, we spotlight up-and-coming collectives who are paving their own way while driving underground culture forward.
If you haven’t heard of Stretch Collective, you’re about to. It’s fast becoming one of the most talked about club nights and collectives in Bristol, driving a unique, bass-heavy, tech-house sound with parties packed full of unparalleled vibes.
The collective was founded by Rudy Dickens and Charlie Addison, students at the University of Bristol and BIMM Institute respectively, and both music-obsessed. They met on a night out, where they discovered their shared love of DJing, production, high-quality sound systems and cutting-edge underground music. Rudy DJs and releases music under the alias K-Werk and Charlie under the alias Addsound, and they both had similar plans for their time studying in Bristol. Both of them planned to launch their own club nights, so they decided to team up and join forces.
“I'd been running parties in Devon, my home, for about a year,” Rudy said. "We were doing little illegal raves and club nights in pubs, and I wanted to transfer that to Bristol. Charlie had this idea about something called Stretch. He had an Instagram setup, and we just took off from there.”
The premise was simple: showcase the best of Bristol's emerging new artists on a world-class soundsystem on a mostly word-of-mouth basis for a clued up crowd.
Building the Community
They threw their first party during fresher's week in 2023, and it sold out. “We downsized for the next party because we wanted to keep the hype,” Rudy says. “We sold that one out, and then we started booking smaller DJs that had a name, like Ellie Anderson, and collaborating and spanning the Bristol network.”
In 2024, they invited underground heroes like Sammi ESO, Delano, Prosumer, and Dave Harvey to play at local institutions such as The Love Inn, Green Works, and Strange Brew. Stretch Collective supported Bubble Love (Ross from Friends) for his Bristol debut at Lakota, and they were invited to hold down a coveted residency at The Love Inn. And, in summer 2025, Rudy and Charlie were invited to represent Stretch Collective at Love International in Croatia.
Finding their Sound
Musically speaking, Stretch Collective started out experimenting with faster, high-BPM sounds like hard-groove techno and garage, but their taste soon shifted after going to transformative nights round Bristol like Strange Brew and the 10-year anniversary of The Love Inn. This exposed Rudy and Charlie to deeper, more progressive styles, which reshaped their musical direction.
“The 10-year anniversary at The Love Inn was a 24-hour party with Amaliah, Ivan Smagghe, DAR DISKU, Midland, Moxie, Parris, Yemz, and a back-to-back-to-back between Dr Banana, Lukas Wigflex, and Willow,” Rudy remembers. “It was all night long amazing music, and that's when I really clicked with deep house and progressive house.”
They’ve come a long way in a short amount of time, but they’re in the right environment for it. Bristol has arguably the strongest electronic music scene in the UK, if not the world. It’s a big claim but well-founded. That's where jungle and Drum & Bass were spawned in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and it’s where the free party scene took flight.
It’s a multi-cultural city, and its Caribbean population has had a big influence on its culture. The annual St. Paul's Carnival celebrates African Caribbean heritage with food, dance, activism, and multiple sound systems, many of which influenced the bass-focussed sound Bristol’s become known for.
Artists like Massive Attack, Roni Size, and Portishead all emerged from the depths of this city, as well as bass music pioneers Om Unit, Addison Groove, Shanti Celeste, Pinch, and Sam Binga.
Looking to the Future
And Stretch Collective has fast become part of the fabric of the place, with big plans for the future. In October, they’re heading to the tunnels of Loco Klub with legendary Madrid DJ and producer Sugar Free, known for her dynamic blends of house, electro, and rare grooves, fresh from a standout set at Houghton Festival.
“After that, we’ve got a couple of collaborations lined up between now and Christmas,” Rudy says. “We’re aiming to host a fundraiser with Green Works in conjunction with Zen Arcade. We ran the same event last year, which went really well and raised money for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, so we’re excited to do it again. Then we’ve got a big one planned for our second birthday at Strange Brew in January.”
Looking even further ahead, they have big ambitions for summer 2026 festival takeovers, but for now, the main focus is growing as a collective and building presence, while exploring ways to platform their political and social values without losing the fun at their core.
For all their latest news, events, and club nights, follow Stretch Collective on Instagram.
