PRS Foundation announces the seventh round of promoters supported through the Early Career Promoters Fund
- Since Round 1 over £325k in support has been issued to nearly 90 early career promoters
- 66.7% are based outside London (for the seventh round)
We’re excited to announce the seventh 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 21 early career promoters, selected for support by a network of specialist music industry advisors, are:
Cherelle Fulton – This will fund BCD collective to host several residency events in grassroots venues, by platforming women of colour and strengthening the community through live music
Meenakshi Malik – We plan on hosting 2 club nights with one headliner each and local support over 6 months
Tom Richards – Four local ‘folk club night’ events and one one-day festival, plus two showcases (Birmingham and Bristol) and a festival takeover
Billy Fox-Coates – Host two genre-diverse gigs in Brighton, featuring emerging artists and headliners from other UK cities, promoting inclusivity, mentoring talent, and implementing eco-conscious
Jayson Coley-Wynters – Monthly Come Sunday Jazz Dance Events with resident and guest DJs and 3 All-Dayers in Birmingham and 3 co-produced events in Birmingham, Sheffield and Manchester
David Weir – Organise, promote and book artists for the third edition of Northgate Folk Festival, an outdoor multi-stage, small-scale event in Chester
Justin Mills – My plan is to host four monthly events celebrating Afrobeats and Amapiano, fostering vibrant community connections and showcasing emerging talent in these genres
Yohan de Ricard – Develop our Family b2b event in London with two dates at the end of 2025
Boo (Ghetec) – I will host a series of electronic music club nights in the Northeast and London, including a showcase and 3 free open decks sessions
Jean Hayes – As a black woman I am putting on a series of live events showcasing the true diversity of the indie rock grass roots music scenes
Adam Hunte – I plan on putting on 4 synthwave and electronica nights across the West Yorkshire Region
Soul Wright – I plan to deliver two expanded Global Sounds x Local Spaces events, featuring live instrumentation, diasporic electronic genres, increased capacity through grassroots and non-traditional venues
Rebecca Owen – To organise, promote and deliver events supporting Women’s music in the Northwest, scaling up my events and increasing visibility for female conscious folk artists
Henry Cyer – The Hotel – new event series focusing on the marginal, outsider lineages of UK experimental music
Will Haywood – 2 day indoor festival in Stoke on Trent featuring punk/alternative acts from the area and some larger uk acts, plus local craft stalls
Joshua Weatherill-Frow – Host a series of dance music club nights at exclusively grassroots music venues across Newcastle with headline acts and community causes
Fraser Dahdouh – Our 2nd Seasoning Festival will platform our resident artists with a brief to push experimental side of their sound alongside first class underground UK talent
Luca Aureli – My plans include selling out the next three shows at the Map Studio Cafe’, collaborating with bigger artists. After that, I will do events in larger venues
Tania Walcott – Open air event for 2025, nightclub events
Charlotte Furness – “Music in Unusual Spaces” is a series of music shows in Bradford, taking live performances to people in everyday, unexpected places
Karen Nyame-Gyamfi – To launch a quarterly residency for my eclectic Afro-Electronic club night, ‘Rhythm,’ at East London’s Night Tales Loft in 2025
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.
This announcement of supported promoters is from applicants to the 12th December 2024 deadline. Successful grantees from subsequent deadlines will be announced over PRS Foundation’s social media over the coming months.
Promoters can find out more information and apply for Early Career Promoter Fund support from PRS Foundation’s website.
