Granite City Entertainment Awards

Celebrating the sound of Aberdeen and North East Scotland

Welcome to the inaugural Granite City Entertainment Awards. We are shining a spotlight on the incredible musicians, bands, vocalists, DJs and behind-the-scenes heroes who keep our local music scene thriving.

Nominate your favourites now

Our purpose and mission

Keeping the music scene in Aberdeen and North East Scotland loud and proud.

The Granite City Entertainment Awards were founded with a single clear mission: to support, champion, and promote the incredible live music culture thriving right here in our city and beyond across North East Scotland.

By providing a platform that spotlights the exceptional talent across 10 distinct categories, we aim to celebrate our thriving music culture and fantastic grassroots venues, giving them the recognition they richly deserve.

A Historic Night at the Beach Ballroom

A community movement deserves a legendary stage. We are thrilled to announce that the inaugural Granite City Entertainment Awards will culminate in a live, physical awards ceremony hosted at the city’s iconic Beach Ballroom.

This spectacular gala night will bring together nominees, industry professionals, and local music fans under the ballroom’s historic starburst ceiling for an evening of live performances and celebration. Winners in all 10 categories will be presented with a beautifully crafted, physical award to mark their achievement. Stay tuned for official ticket releases and line-up announcements—this will be the ultimate celebration of North East Scotland’s musical community.

Timeline

Step 1: Nominations

Open now – closing Sunday 9th August

From now until the beginning of August, the stage is entirely yours. Anyone can nominate a local music act, venue, or industry professional across our 10 official categories. It takes less than two minutes to submit your picks.

Step 2: Voting opens

Monday 10th August – Saturday 31st October

Once nominations close we will announce the shortlist in each category on this website. The public will then have 10 weeks to vote for their favourite artist/nominee in each category. To ensure complete community integrity, our system strictly enforces a one-vote-per-person policy. No duplicate voting, no rigging—just real local support.

Step 3: The Final

Sunday 15th November

Once the public voting window closes, the results are audited and securely locked down. The finalists from each category will be announced before the award ceremony at the Beach Ballroom on Sunday 15th November.

The 2026 Categories

From raw acoustic talent to the full-throttle bands tearing up our local venues, find the perfect home for your nominations.

Best Male & Female Vocalist

Celebrating the finest standalone male / female singers and frontmen lighting up Aberdeen and North East Scotland’s stages.

Best Live Band

For the tightest groups, heaviest riffs, and the bands that deliver unforgettable energy live.


Best Acoustic / Solo Act

Recognising the singer-songwriters and acoustic artists capturing the room with just a guitar, a piano, or a voice.

Best Musical Duo

Shining a light on the unique chemistry and harmonies of top two-piece acts.

Breakthrough Artist of the Year

Spotlighting the rising stars and fresh talent who have made the biggest splash in the local scene over the last 12 months.

Best Original Song

For the songwriters behind the most memorable, locally produced track or anthem of the year.

Best Cover, Tribute or Variety Act

Celebrating the acts that keep the dance floors packed by brilliantly reinterpreting the hits we all love.

Music Venue of the Year

Honouring the pubs, clubs, and independent spaces providing the lifeblood, sound engineering, and stages for our local music.

Granite Award for Outstanding Contribution to Local Music

A special category for the promoters, sound techs, radio hosts, or local champions working tirelessly behind the scenes.

Nominations are now open

Use the below form to nominate your favourite acts. To help identify the nominee, please include their website / social media details if possible. We would love to hear why you have nominated your act so please include a line or two on why you think they deserve to win a Granite City Entertainment Award.

Your Name

Thank you to our supporting venues

The Beach Ballroom, Krakatoa, O’Donoghues, The Drouthy Laird, Hopeville Social Club, The Snooty Fox, Broadstraik Inn, Polmuir Bowling Club, Queens Hotel, Bennachie Lodge, O’Neill’s, Nigg Bay Golf Club

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1. Introduction

Welcome to our privacy policy. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy informs you about how we look after your personal data when you visit our website to nominate or vote for your favourite local music acts, and tells you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

This website is designed specifically to celebrate local music talent by allowing members of the public to submit nominations and cast votes. Because our functionality is limited strictly to these activities, we only collect the minimum amount of personal data necessary to run a fair, secure, and transparent voting process.

2. The Data We Collect About You

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store, and transfer different kinds of personal data about you, which we have grouped together as follows:

  • Voter & Nominator Data: Email address (collected when you submit a nomination or cast a vote to verify your entry and prevent duplicate voting).

  • Technical Data: Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.

  • Usage Data: Information about how you use our website, including the timestamps of when nominations or votes were submitted.

  • Nominee Data: If you nominate a local music act, we collect the name of the act and any public links or social media handles you provide to identify them. If an act is an individual or a group of individuals, this information may constitute personal data.

3. How Your Personal Data Is Collected

We use different methods to collect data from and about you, including through:

  • Direct Interactions: You give us your email address and nomination selections by filling in forms on our website.

  • Automated Technologies: As you interact with our website, we automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs, and similar technologies.

4. How and Why We Use Your Personal Data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • Legitimate Interests: Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests to ensure the integrity, security, and fairness of the voting and nomination process (for example, tracking IP addresses and email addresses to detect and prevent automated voting, spam, or multiple voting fraud).

  • Consent: Where you explicitly choose to provide information or opt-in to receive subsequent updates about the award outcomes or event logistics.

Purpose / Activity Type of Data Lawful Basis for Processing
To record and count your nomination for a local music act. Email address, Nominee details Legitimate interests (to run a valid awards program)
To process and validate your vote, ensuring a limit of one vote per person/category. Email address, IP address, Technical Data Legitimate interests (to prevent voting manipulation and fraud)
To administer and protect our website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, and system testing). IP address, Technical Data Legitimate interests (to keep our platform secure and running properly)

5. Data Retention: How Long We Keep Your Information

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, or reporting requirements.

Retention Policy: All email addresses and IP addresses collected strictly for validation and voting verification purposes will be securely and permanently deleted within 60 days following the formal announcement of the award winners and the conclusion of the event cycle.

Publicly displayed nominee names or music act profiles may remain on the website as a historical archive of the awards, unless a request for removal is submitted.

6. Sharing Your Personal Data

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to any third parties for marketing or commercial purposes. Your data is only shared with trusted service providers who assist us in operating our platform:

  • Hosting & Infrastructure Providers: Web hosting and database providers who securely store data within UK or European Economic Area (EEA) data centres.

  • Anti-Fraud Services: Technical verification services that assist in identifying malicious bot activity or bulk spam submissions.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes.

7. Cookies

Our website uses essential cookies and similar session-tracking technologies strictly to manage the voting workflow. These cookies are required to remember your session state, ensure that your vote is registered accurately, and prevent duplicate entries. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, but note that if you disable or refuse cookies, some parts of this website may become inaccessible or fail to function properly during the voting process.

8. Data Security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered, or disclosed. Communication with this website is encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) / Transport Layer Security (TLS) technology. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those organizers or technical administrators who have a business need to know.

9. Your Legal Rights

Under UK data protection laws, you have rights in relation to your personal data, including the right to:

  • Request Access: Receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you.

  • Request Correction: Ask us to correct any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you.

  • Request Erasure: Ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it.

  • Object to Processing: Object to the processing of your data where we are relying on a legitimate interest.

  • Withdraw Consent: Withdraw your consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your data.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us via our designated contact details.

10. Contact Us and Regulatory Complaints

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our data protection practices, please contact the organizing committee through the contact form or email address listed on our website's homepage.

You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.

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