A DJ residency is a regular booking at the same venue, weekly or monthly, for a season or longer, usually built around a named night.
Ibiza turned it into an institution, with residency announcements arriving in winter and being compared all summer like football fixtures. The benchmark for loyalty remains Carl Cox at Space: fifteen summers at the same club, ended only because, in October 2015, he announced that 2016 would be his last season there, promising fifteen weeks of special line-ups. He closed it in style, playing six hours in the main room at the club’s final party. A good residency gives a DJ time to build a crowd, and gives a club a reason to be visited on a Tuesday. For the audience a residency is a ritual with a calendar: same night, same room, slightly different shirts.