Martin Guttridge-Hewitt
Martin Guttridge-Hewitt is a freelance journalist whose work at DJ Mag sits where club culture, politics and social initiatives meet, using dance music scenes to report on how institutions, policies and communities collide. He has been involved in the music sector for more than twenty years, and brings long-standing knowledge of clubs, festivals and live events to stories about power, responsibility and change. His portfolio spans news stories, feature articles and opinion pieces, with a consistent interest in how cultural spaces respond to political decisions and wider social pressures.
Club culture, politics and initiatives
Guttridge-Hewitt regularly reports from clubs, festivals, parties and raves with a brief that explicitly includes politics and initiatives alongside culture. His coverage for DJ Mag uses dance music as a lens on institutional behaviour, including pieces that examine how government communications borrow from electronic music culture and how fans react when political actors appropriate underground sounds. In wider work he specialises in reportage from grassroots music communities at the intersections of social issues, culture and the environment, treating scenes as places where policy is felt directly rather than as a backdrop. Across outlets he writes about British music scenes, communities and the industry, focusing on stories where decisions made far from the dancefloor reshape what happens in clubs and at events.
Top 30 UK club events and nightlife coverage
At DJ Mag, Guttridge-Hewitt has an established role in shaping the magazine’s view of the UK club calendar through recurring “Top 30 UK club events” features. These pieces gather thirty upcoming club nights under a single banner, creating a snapshot of the most significant events across the country in a given month. In these listings he works as the magazine’s Clubs Listings Editor, selecting and presenting club events in a way that reflects the breadth of contemporary nightlife.
The format gives him a regular platform to foreground particular venues, promoters and strands of club culture, and underpins the authority he brings when writing about how policy or politics affects the night-time economy.
Top compilations, tracks and scene snapshots
Guttridge-Hewitt also contributes list-led coverage such as DJ Mag’s round-ups of the top compilations and top tracks of 2023, extending his perspective from dancefloors to releases. These pieces document the music that defines a given year, offering a view of which artists, labels and sounds are moving club culture forward.
The combination of event listings and release-focused lists means his work captures both what happens in clubs and what producers and labels are putting into circulation, giving his political and social reporting a concrete grounding in the current state of the scene.
Music, culture and environment reporting beyond DJ Mag
Beyond the magazine, Guttridge-Hewitt writes extensively about the intersections between music, culture and the environment. His analysis of more sustainable live music and associated directions for the sector shows him applying a journalist’s eye to the environmental impact of touring, festivals and venues, and to the policies that could mitigate those impacts.
He retains an in-house role as an environmental journalist within a public sector-focused news organisation, further anchoring his coverage in policy and governance.
His bylines in national and specialist media, including outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian, The Face, Mixmag, VICE, Metro, DJ Mag, Crack, Dazed, Environment Journal and FACT, carry the same emphasis on grassroots reportage and on how social and environmental issues manifest in cultural spaces. Across these platforms he operates as a journalist, writer and editor, using club culture and music as an entry point to wider questions about sustainability, community and political responsibility.
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