Following our first Blackburn Gigs programme, which delivered 124 performances across the town, Blackburn Gigs: Building a Live Music Future set out to take the next step – creating opportunities for emerging artists, developing audiences and testing new approaches to grassroots live music in Blackburn.

Supported by Arts Council England and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, the programme combined live events, major cultural partnerships and artist development activity.

Blackburn Gigs in numbers

Across the programme we:

• Showcased 47 acts, representing over 70 individual musicians
• Delivered six artist development workshops, with 30+ participants
• Reached thousands of audience members directly through gigs and partnership events, while presenting Blackburn Gigs artists as part of major cultural events attracting tens of thousands of visitors.
• Delivered two sold-out grassroots shows
• Programmed artists across The National Festival of Making, Blackburn Beer Festival, The Exchange reopening and Music & Madness
• Piloted a new DIY event model with Made in Blackburn

Putting local artists in front of new audiences

Partnerships formed a major part of this year’s programme.

At the National Festival of Making, Blackburn Gigs co-curated Not Only A Stage and delivered performances across two days in Cathedral Square, forming part of a festival attracting tens of thousands of visitors to Blackburn town centre.

We also programmed artists across three days of Blackburn Beer Festival, supported live music for the reopening of The Exchange, and partnered with Darwen Youth Zone and We Are Noise on Music & Madness, creating opportunities for young performers through the HAF programme.

These partnerships proved particularly effective at putting emerging artists in front of larger and more diverse audiences – including people who might not ordinarily seek out a grassroots gig.

Supporting artist development

Alongside performance opportunities, we delivered six artist development workshops with music-industry professionals.

Sessions covered areas including artistic identity, EPKs and marketing, songwriting and communication, live performance, releases and gigs, and building a sustainable career in music.

Feedback was exceptionally strong. Of the artists completing our evaluation:

• 10 out of 11 rated the programme 5/5, with the remaining participant rating it 4/5
• 100% said they would attend further workshops
• 100% gave the programme 5/5 for likelihood of recommending it to another artist

Participants also reported putting the learning into practice through new releases, updated EPKs, gig bookings, funding applications and new industry connections.

“This is something that was missing in Blackburn.”

Testing new approaches

The programme was also designed to help us understand what works – and what doesn’t.

Small-capacity grassroots shows remained challenging to sustain, particularly for emerging artists still developing their audiences. A number of planned shows were cancelled due to low advance ticket sales, despite Blackburn Gigs supporting artist fees, technical costs and elements of marketing.

Conversely, two shows featuring more established local acts sold out – demonstrating that audiences can still be mobilised when the artist, venue and proposition are right.

One of the most encouraging findings was the quality of some of the youngest artists we encountered, including performers under 18 at the very beginning of their musical journeys.

We ended the programme with Made in Blackburn at MeeMaws: a DIY-style event with low-cost, pay-what-you-can tickets and a packed programme of local performers.

Around 50 people attended, creating a busy, informal and communal night which offered an encouraging test of a lower-cost, DIY approach to grassroots programming.

What have we learned?

Blackburn Gigs has highlighted both the potential and the challenges facing grassroots music in the town.

There remains a significant gap between Blackburn’s smallest DIY and community spaces and major venues such as the reopened King George’s Hall. The pipeline of performance-ready emerging artists is also smaller than we had anticipated, while the economics of conventional small-capacity gigs remain difficult.

But the programme also demonstrated some significant strengths: exciting young talent, established artists capable of drawing audiences, strong engagement with artist development, receptive audiences at public events and a committed community of people who care about live music in Blackburn.

Our biggest learning is perhaps the simplest: a music scene can’t simply be programmed into existence.

The next step may be less about organising more gigs ourselves and more about providing the spaces, equipment, expertise and support that allow a new generation of artists, promoters and audiences to create something of their own.

Thank you to every artist, partner, industry professional and audience member who took part in Blackburn Gigs.

The programme has given us a much clearer picture of the challenges ahead – but also plenty of reasons to believe that Blackburn’s next generation of grassroots music is worth backing.

 

 

Feedback:

“My experience with Blackburn Gigs has been truly uplifting. The venue I performed in transformed as soon as the live music began; diners who were chatting and enjoying drinks suddenly filled the space with singing and dancing. It was especially rewarding to see people come specifically to watch me after enjoying my previous performances at another venue the year before. The staff clearly enjoyed the atmosphere, and their enthusiasm brightened their shift” – Kiki (Performer)

 

“I’m really proud to have been a part of the Blackburn gigs programme and it’s really refreshing to see more music related events and happenings in my home town. Thank you for supporting local artists and bands and hope to see/be involved in more of it soon!” – Leah Eccles (Performer)

 

“I liked having local music events to attend. It’s difficult getting to other towns, e.g. Manchester, because of the cost of travel, unreliability of public transport, and cost of hotels to stay over instead. Having events that weren’t just in pubs made it a friendlier atmosphere too, and open to more people.” – Audience Member

 

“Well managed and really beneficial to the community and to the musicians that perform both financially and for the night life itself. I noticed in every place I played that the attendance and amount of time customers stayed in venues as well as the revenue generated for the venues and staff easily doubled, just by the presence of “something going on”. It would be great to continue to provide services and performances but also to experiment with pop up events and possibly festivals going forward to engage the community.” – Hughzy (Performer)

 

“We are touring artists and were able to bring a show to a pub in Blackburn that may not have been able to afford it otherwise. With the rising cost of living, pubs are really feeling the pinch and their margins just don’t allow them to have a budget for musicians. We have heard from a lot of artist how much this has been hurting them, especially the ones who rely on this income. Blackburn Gigs is a beautiful project that is supporting both local musicians to grow and local venues to provide a home base for live music. Wonderful” April Moon (Performer)

 

“Blackburn Gigs has been a brilliant project that shows there is absolutely a demand for live music in Blackburn. The venues that support the project have a brilliant atmosphere and patrons have had great feedback as a result. – Victoria Chesterton (Performer)

 

“What a fantastic night! The small independent venue was lovely and all the staff was welcoming, I’ll defitnely be coming back here. The sound was perfect and the atomosphere was intimate. Both Pretty Shivers and Beth Blade were absolutely fantastic.
” – Audience Member

 

“Despite our ages (late 60’s, early 70’s) we still massively enjoy live music of any kind and would normally go to Sunbird, Darwen so tonight was a brilliant change and fingers crossed there will be many more ‘live’ nights – well done”
” – Audience Member

What happens next?

We’re keen to hear from artists, promoters, venues and young people interested in helping shape the future of grassroots music in Blackburn.

If you’ve got an idea, a space, or simply want to be part of what happens next, we’d love to hear from you.