The Independent and Music Venue Trust launch major new initiative to support UK grassroots music venues

The Independent is launching a brand new initiative, Main Stage, to offer support and publicity to grassroots venues around the UK.

Launched in association with the Music Venue Trust, the charity organisation founded in 2014 to help protect and support Britain’s independent music venues, the project comes after warnings that the sector is in the middle of a “full-blown crisis”.

Grassroots music venues (GMVs) frequently serve as a launch pad for up-and-coming talent, with virtually all of the UK’s biggest acts starting out on some of its smallest stages. Artists including Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi, Wolf Alice, Coldplay, Arlo Parks and Stormzy all started out performing in grassroots venues.

Despite this, a damning report by the MVT published in January showed that an average of two grassroots music venues closed permanently every week in 2023, marking what industry figures branded the “most challenging” year in a decade.

The report also found that, despite contributing over £500m to the economy and employing close to 30,000 people, the grassroots scene remained “significantly underfunded compared to other areas of culture”.

In its year-long initiative, The Independent will highlight one grassroots venue from each of the 12 UK regions, and speak with the people who help to run it to highlight the struggles and successes they have experienced. We’re kicking things off with The Music Workshop, a recently opened independent venue in Folkestone, Kent.

Each venue will also receive a shout-out in the weekly Now Hear This newsletter, championing across The Independent’s social media channels, £5,000 worth of ad inventory, and the option to use The Independent’s logo on their website and socials for one year, highlighting their status as a sponsored venue.

Mark Davyd, CEO of the Music Venue Trust, said: “It's really exciting to see a project which focuses on the impact GMVs have in their local communities and which can throw a spotlight on the incredible work being done in the grassroots sector. There's obviously a lot of negativity around the challenges these venues face, but we need to remember that every day in the UK incredible music is being created and enjoyed in hundreds of spaces across the country.”

The Music Workshop

The Music Workshop in Folkestone was launched by husband-and-wife team Daniel and Josie Clark, and operates as a cafe, gig venue and events space. While neither of them had any experience running a music venue before, Josie – who was born and raised in the seaside town – had been running workshops for children and teenagers through local schools. She found that parents would frequently ask whether she planned to do more, and began looking around for a permanent venue where she could host them.

“I did my Masters focusing on the decline of music education in schools,” she explained. “I very much see that in my one-to-one and group sessions where we’re playing instruments or singing.

“Some kids haven’t seen any live music by the time they’re 14, which is crazy to me, because when I was a teenager it was quite a big thing. There were a lot of young bands and places to play around town.”

While Josie, 30, managed to secure funding for one-off projects, she grew frustrated at the difficulty of securing anything to sustain a longer-term initiative. This – and some egging on from Daniel – helped inspire The Music Workshop, for which the couple took out a £25,000 business loan in order to get things off the ground.

Daniel, 37, said he believes that operating as a multi-purpose venue was the only way The Music Workshop could survive, with him and Josie splitting shifts between its day and nighttime operations, as well as caring for their infant daughter, Etta, and with another baby on the way. The set-up means they can be more flexible depending on demand: if live bookings are slow, they can accommodate more venues and workshops, and vice versa. Fortunately, it seems as though business is rapidly picking up.

Folkestone was declared the “world’s first music town” in 2019, thanks in part to a heritage that includes musician Noel Redding, who joined Jimi Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell in 1966 to form The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Meanwhile, the historic Leas Cliff Hall has hosted legendary acts such as Pink Floyd (in 1969), Jethro Tull, The Kinks, Deep Purple, Fleetwood Mac (1973), T-Rex, Hawkwind, The Pogues, Gloria Gaynor, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

It no longer hosts quite the same calibre of artists, but Folkestone’s music scene is quietly picking up pace once again. Over the road from The Music Workshop is another grassroots venue, The Chambers, which has hosted regular music night Riot Gull, launched by local promoter Geraldine Zanaska. This has included rising rock trio HotWax, who formed down the coast in Hastings and who recently performed at London’s Roundhouse in support of Frank Carter and The Rattlesnakes. Folkestone also plays host to Music in May, a month-long celebration of music in the town, launching this year on Wednesday 1 May.

Daniel and Josie have arranged The Music Workshop like a jazz cafe, with comfortable tables and chairs arranged around the room and the stage in the corner, so audience members can enjoy a glass of wine or a coffee along with performances from local and visiting artists. For livelier shows, the tables are cleared away and the room is packed out with fans.

“The sheer workload has been one of the biggest challenges,” Daniel said. “Booking bands, social media… we hadn’t done any of that before, and you have to be consistent.”

“There are always 20 things we need to tick off the list,” Josie said, “but we feel like we’re starting to get on top of things for the first time since we opened.”

“It feels really exciting,” Daniel agreed. He said that the support of the local community has had a huge impact on them: “It’s so encouraging that we’ve made this space for people to come and be creative without any judgement.”

“Every time we’re open, at least one person comes in and says how much they love this place,” Josie said.

The Music Workshop is hosting local artists on Saturday 27 April, including Megan Wrdroper and Jack Lumber (tickets are £2.50). The following day (Sunday 28 April) will feature a writer’s round hosted by singer-songwriter Lucy May Walker, who will be joined by Charlotte Campbell and Kitty Montague. Tickets are on sale now.