Were you bouncing around a school disco to crossover hits from Mis-Teeq and Sweet Female Attitude’s Flowers? Or were you dressed in a fly outfit, dancing and crooning with your mates to classic anthems such as Kele Le Roc’s My Love or Shola Ama’s Imagine? Miss it? Well, the time’s come to dust off your Moschino and get your dancing Choos out.

UK garage, or UKG, was born around 20 years ago on London dancefloors and airwaves. And right now, there’s a renaissance happening. People Just Do Nothing – the popular BBC Three comedy series based around a UK garage pirate radio station, now on its fourth series – certainly deserves a nod for renewing interest levels, but there’s a lot more bubbling in 2018.

After a successful launch in London, UKG Brunch has announced nationwide tour dates visiting Sheffield, Bournemouth, Southampton, Cardiff and Leeds over the next few months. It starts at midday, with unlimited fried chicken and rum punch cocktails, plus live performances from DJ Luck & MC Neat, Artful Dodger, Kele Le Roc and Romeo of So Solid Crew. The promoter Sidewinder has announced an old skool festival in Manchester this May, while Garage Nation is heading to Hainault Forest Country Park in June. And if you haven’t got tickets for The Streets’ tour this April then you’re already too late: most dates sold out in a day.

But in 2018, UKG is also worthy of highbrow consideration. DJ Spoony – who, along with his fellow DJs from The Dreem Teem helped the genre find a mainstream home on Radio 1 in 2000 – is now presenting Garage Classical at the Barbican Centre. With composer and conductor Katie Chatburn, and the 36-piece Ignition Orchestra, the original vocalists will be performing reinterpreted versions of hits such as DJ Pied Piper’s Do You Really Like It?, Artful Dodger’s Please Don’t Turn Me On and MJ Cole’s Sincere.

Why UK garage is enjoying a cultural renaissance