Everywhere At Once festival to bring live music weekend to Leeds venues
Leeds will join hundreds of towns and cities across the UK this summer as part of Everywhere At Once, a new nationwide grassroots music festival backed by Music Venue Trust and The National Lottery.
The three-day event, taking place from June 26 to 28, is being described by organisers as “a festival on your doorstep” and will see more than 400 grassroots music venues host live performances during what would traditionally be Glastonbury Festival weekend.
More than 2,000 artists are set to perform across the country including stars such as Becky Hill, Tinie Tempah, Rizzle Kicks and The Lathums who are playing special shows to highlight the role grassroots venues played in their own careers.
In Leeds, venues including Duck & Drake, Northern Guitars Cafe Bar, Oporto and The Love Inn will host live music across the festival weekend.
The city’s programme includes Nik Svarc with The Jacob Beckwith Band at Northern Guitars Cafe Bar on Friday June 26, Them Crows at Duck & Drake on Saturday June 27 and Chicago Joe and the Soul Divas at Duck & Drake on Sunday June 28.
Becky Hill, who will return to the Marrs Bar, the Worcester venue where she first performed aged 16, has talked about the importance of grassroot venues in her career saying:
"I started writing music at 13. I got into a band at 15 and started doing local open mics & small gigs around Worcestershire.
"In these early days it was venues like this that allowed a very young me to begin to learn how to perform, sing and play guitar on stage, gaining my confidence and broadening my experience as a teenager.
"I look back on those times very fondly and I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity that places like Marrs Bar provided."
Alex Moore of The Lathums also highlighted the importance of grassroots venues in developing artists, saying: "Honestly, the UK’s full of these proper special grassroots venues. Everyone’s got its own feel – different stages, different crowds, all those little quirks that make them what they are – but they’ve all got that same heart.
"Without them we wouldn’t be anywhere near the festivals or the bigger shows we’re doing now. It means everything.”
Music Venue Trust said Everywhere At Once is designed to bring audiences closer to live music without the need for large-scale festival travel or camping, while also spotlighting venues at the heart of local communities.
According to The National Lottery, which is supporting the initiative, Lottery players have helped contribute more than £1 billion towards music projects and opportunities across the UK.
Full line-ups, ticket details and updates are available at everywherefest.com