UK’s ‘largest multi-venue music festival’ unveiled

A new event billed as the UK’s largest multi-venue music festival is being launched to celebrate the role of ‘seed music venues’ in cultivating headliners of the future.

Presented by live music marketplace GigPig, The Seed Sounds Weekender will utilise more than 1,000 pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels across 20 towns and cities in an effort to “formally unite and celebrate this fragmented sector as a cornerstone of the UK’s music scene”.

Taking place from 26-28 September, the festival will feature in excess 2,000 performances from local artists and is being backed by The 1975 frontman Matty Healy.

“Local venues aren’t just where bands cut their teeth, they’re the foundation of any real culture,” says Healy, who is serving as Seed Sounds Weekender ambassador. “Without them, you don’t get The Smiths, Amy Winehouse, or The 1975. You get silence. The erosion of funding for seed and grassroots spaces is part of a wider liberal tendency to strip away the socially democratic infrastructure that actually makes art possible. What’s left is a cultural economy where only the privileged can afford to create, and where only immediately profitable art survives.

“The Seed Sounds Weekender is a vital reminder that music doesn’t start in boardrooms or big arenas; it starts in back rooms, pubs, basements, and independent spaces run on love, grit, and belief in something bigger.”

Partners include Uber, Skiddle, UseYourLocal and the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA). Attendees will be able to access most gigs via a free Seed Sounds Weekender ticket, with ticket holders receiving discounted Uber rides to and from participating venues.

“Collectively, this space promotes more music than any other in the live music business, yet it has gone overlooked and under-appreciated”

Confirmed venues include Stonegate Group, Laine Pub Co., New World Trading Company, BrewDog, Diecast, Boom Battle Bars, Alberts Schloss, Stack and Tokyo Industries.

“The UK’s seed venues are where music careers are born,” adds Kit Muir-Rogers, co-founder of GigPig. “Collectively, this space promotes more music than any other in the live music business, yet it has gone overlooked and under-appreciated. The Seed Sounds Weekender is not just a festival; it’s a rallying point for a sector that deserves to be celebrated for its immense contribution to British music.”

Town and cities taking part include Birmingham, Bournemouth, Coventry, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Harrogate, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Sheffield, Southampton, Sunderland and York.

According to organisers, the sector collectively hosts over three million gigs annually, nurtures over 43,000 active musicians, and contributes an estimated £2.4 billion (€2.8bn) annually to the UK economy, with £500 million (€577m) of that directly in artist fees.

“Seed music venues are the incubators for the next generation of artists,” says NTIA CEO Michael Kill. “They’re more than venues, they’re workshops, gathering spots, testing grounds. They’re where rough ideas get sharpened, where voices find confidence, where communities come together around sound and story. If we want to keep that creative fire burning, if we want new sounds, new voices, and scenes that speak to who we really are, then we’ve got to look after the seed spaces. That’s the foundation everything else stands on.”

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.