PRS Foundation – the award-winning charitable funder of new music and talent development – announces today the first round of promoters receiving the targeted Early Career Promoter Fund, supported by Arts Council England using strategic funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
The 18 early career promoters, selected for support by a network of specialist music industry advisors, are:
● Adam Blackwood (Yorkshire and Humberside) – A series of three gigs over the course of three months, all in the same Bradford grass-roots venue, with three bands per gig.
● Alex Day (Local Nocturna) (East of England) – Three new events from November 2024 – April 2025, spanning ambient and experimental dance music, and ‘Dance Discourse’, a talk-shop community exchange.
● Alfie McIntyre (West Midlands) – One DJ Networking event to launch a regular event (1st September) and 6 bi-monthly live music nights and collaborative events.
● Billie Morton Riley (London) – An inclusive club night featuring women, non-binary, and trans DJs, dedicated to creating a safer and immersive space for both performers and audiences.
● Bipasha Ahmed (London) – Decolonise Fest plans to enhance our operational capacity and strategic planning through training, mentorship, and community partnerships for sustainable growth.
● Jack Boynton (North West) – 4 safe and accessible gigs with 3-4 acts on each line-up at The Gregson Community Centre.
● Ed Harding (Elastics) (London) – A two room club event with an immersive A/V installation, featuring a debut live electronic music and DJ sets in a community run venue.
● Hannah Couch (North East) – Reb’Elle Festival – a festival aimed at addressing the gender imbalance of bands on festival line ups.
● Holly Harman (South East) – A multi-genre concert series across various venues in St Leonards called Sounds St Leonards.
● James Booton (North West) – 4 live events in Liverpool to act as showcases for BOOT – – – MUSIC Magazine.
● Julian Capolei (London) – Soft launch on the 16/8/24, big launch in October, with parties every 2 months following. Increasing frequency, partnerships and locations of events.
● Natalie Sharp (North West) – A celebration of Queer core, crip love in a horizontal sounding playground called Welcome to Soft House.
● Rebecca Woodcock (Music Sphere) (North East) – A series of electronic music club nights at multiple grassroots venues in Newcastle upon Tyne, and showcases further afield.
● Roberta Banks (London) – A month-long residency, highlighting the marginalised queer Black electronic and classical contemporary community at larger venues than previously promoted in.
● Shelley Polaine (South West) – Experimenting with Sunday evening events, giving local musicians opportunity to perform on Sundays while making live performance accessible to musicians and the hospitality sector.
● Talia Andrea (London) – A music festival series with an all-female lineup of DJs, artists, and staff, as well as a series of smaller all-female showcases around London.
● Vivek Varia (South West) – Upscaling events to include larger venues and acts, whilst maintaining the ethos of providing affordable pleasure and opportunity to the local scene.
● Will Tang (North West) – One day festival, with named acts and strategic marketing campaign.
Early Career Promoter Fund supported Rebecca Woodcock from Music Sphere (North East) said: “We’re grateful for support from the Early Career Promoter Fund enabling us to get mentoring, increase our business skills such as accounting and develop our audience through booking bigger artists.”
57% of grantees in this first round are women and gender-diverse promoters from across England and two thirds of grantees are based outside of London. The funded activities will be taking place over the coming months in, and developing partnerships with, vital grassroots music venues, festivals and others in the ecosystem, benefitting music creators, artists and crews.
Ben Price, Grants & Programmes Manager at PRS Foundation said. “Huge congratulations to all 18 promoters receiving the first round of this targeted Early Career Promoter Fund support. It’s fantastic to see so many exciting projects taking place across England that will provide a vital opportunity for each promoter to develop their practice, platform many talented artists and DJs, and build audiences and scenes while working closely with and benefitting other key players in grassroots music ecosystems, including venues, nightclubs and crew members. Together with Arts Council England and DCMS we’re very much looking forward to seeing the impact of this support as we continue to fund more and more early career promoters through this initiative.”
Claire Mera-Nelson, Director, Music, Arts Council England said: “The work of a promoter in the grassroots of the music sector can be isolated and challenging, with limited ways for individuals to build their skills and attract investment to support their creative vision. I’m optimistic that the Early Career Promoter Fund will go some way towards addressing these barriers, helping promoters develop their businesses and attracting new audiences to support musicians as their careers develop. I look forward to seeing how the opportunities and financial support ECPF grantees receive make a difference to enabling more people to develop sustainable careers in the music industry, building on Arts Council’s wider support for England’s grassroots music sector.”
Arts Minister Chris Bryant said: “Our vibrant grassroots music sector is the backbone of our world-leading music industry. We know that promoters play a vital part in this by supporting the next generation of talent to launch their careers and developing diverse new music scenes.
“We want to boost opportunities for all and support everyone to fulfil their creative potential, which is why I’m delighted that these grants will help 18 talented early-stage promoters to book and promote a wider variety of artists and engage more audiences, while growing their own careers in the creative industries.
The Early Career Promoter Fund recognises the vital role independent promoters play in supporting the talent pipeline across England and within the nighttime economy, and offers grant funding and capacity building support for individual promoters, with the aim of bolstering the grassroots music ecosystems.
Grants of up to £3,500 are available to support a range of activity, including:
● The booking, programming and promotion of gigs, concerts, club nights, showcases, tours and other performances
● Costs associated with those activities (including venue hire, production, artist and/or DJ fees, crew fees, administration and other related costs)
● Capacity building (including mentoring, coaching, shadowing, workshops, masterclasses, and other skill building and networking opportunities)
● Other expenditure which helps grantees to programme a diverse range of artists, develop new audiences and build their skills
The fund aims to help emerging promoters to do what they do best – book and promote shows to develop scenes, support artists and DJs and to reach and engage audiences locally, regionally, and nationally, and build sustainable careers in the grassroots music sector. Those receiving support will be able to step up to book and promote talent at a scale beyond their current level, and build their capacity, skills and networks.
Managed by PRS Foundation and funded by Arts Council England using Supporting Grassroots Music funding from DCMS, the Early Career Promoter Fund also aims to help address underrepresentation, ensuring support reaches a diverse range of promoters, and proactively encouraging grantees to support a diverse range of artists and music genres nationwide. The fund will run until March 2025 with rolling monthly deadlines and an expectation to support more than 200 promoters with grants of up to £3,500.
Promoters can find out more information and apply for Early Career Promoter Fund support from PRS Foundation’s website.
This first cohort of supported promoters is from applicants to the 13th June 2024 deadline. Successful grantees from subsequent deadlines will be announced over PRS Foundation’s social media over the coming months. The next deadline to submit an application will be Tuesday 17th September 2024 at 6:00pm. Deadlines for the Early Career Promoter Fund are monthly and are listed on PRS Foundation’s website.
