RADAR to become first festival to donate ticket sale proceeds to Music Venue Trust

20th February 2024 0 By Jon Deaux

The award-winning, genre-busting RADAR Festival will become the first festival to donate ticket sales proceeds to Music Venue Trust (MVT), to support grassroots music venues.

A percentage of every ticket sold for RADAR Festival 2024 will support MVT‘s Pipeline Investment Fund and is a major step forward in supporting the backbone of the UK live scene.

MVT‘s Pipeline Investment Fund has awarded more than £260,000 to 61 UK grassroots music venues since it was founded in 2022. The announcement follows renewed calls from MVT for a ticket levy on all major stadium and arena gigs to support the grassroots, in the wake of the news that 16% (125) of UK grassroots music venues were lost in the last 12 months, with 38% of all UK grassroots music venues posting a financial loss.

Already a landmark event in the North West, the independent, progressive RADAR Festival this year runs from 26-28th July at Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse, with synth royalty The Midnight headlining the Friday – their debut UK festival performance. Joining them are Dirty Loops, Plini, VOLA and Sungazer, among others.

Get tickets from: RADARfestival.co.uk

Co-organiser Catherine Jackson-Smith, who also owns The Lounge Bar in Alton, said, “I’ve seen the journey in my own venue of young artists playing for the first time and stepping onto a small stage that they know has previously hosted artists that they admire and want to emulate. Time and again I’ve watched these nervous artists blossom in confidence, ability and stature within the scene, waiting to be discovered by the masses. When that happens, they know how to interact with a crowd, how to control a room, pace their set and perform to the best of their abilities.

“These are all crafts that you can only develop with a small, raw audience that the grassroots music scene cultivates every night up and down the country. If we don’t protect the smaller venues then there isn’t a pipeline for the next headliners, and this ticking time bomb is something that the music industry can, and must, take action on.”

Joe James, RADAR co-organiser and former events manager at The Boileroom in Guildford added, “Many of the crew working at RADAR – lighting and sound engineers, stage and production managers, merchandise sellers and more – gained first-hand experience at grassroots venues. As well as nurturing artists these training grounds support the whole talent ecosystem.”

“We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to RADAR Festival, for taking this bold step as the first festival to champion the Pipeline Investment Fund. Their support is a strong commitment to the heart and soul of the UK’s music scene, nurturing its roots through the vital network of Grassroots Music Venues,” said MVT CEO and founder Mark Davyd.

Full list of bands announced for RADAR Festival 2024 so far:

The Midnight
Dirty Loops
Plini
VOLA
Sungazer
Humanity’s Last Breath
Heart of a Coward
Oxymorrons
Blood Command
Caskets
Conjurer
Ithaca
Siamese
unpeople
Graphic Nature
The Intersphere
The Omnific
Future Static
ADHARMA
Cestra
Tribe Of Ghosts
Seething Akira
Giant Walker
Ikonik

RADAR – the UK’s most exciting new progressive music festival – moved to Manchester for its 2023 edition, the third iteration of the festival.

RADAR Festival 2023 was a smash success, with Friday headliners Sleep Token joining Periphery (Sunday) and Igorrr (Saturday) among a host of the best from the UK progressive underground and globally. RADAR pride themselves on providing a first home for the best international artists – previous years have seen Dirty Loops‘ (2022) and The Callous Daoboys‘ (2023) first UK shows.

RADAR capped their intensely impressive 2022 by winning the Best New Festival Award at the UK Festival Awards on 6th December in Manchester, and were shortlisted for Best Small Festival and Best Metropolitan Festival at 2023’s UK Festival Awards.

With their mixture of international talent and confirmed homegrown success, RADAR Festival has already positioned themselves as a champion of forward-thinking guitar-led progressive music. No genre boundaries, welcome to all, RADAR Festival was launched in 2019 to acclaim, with performances from Animals As Leaders, Agent Fresco, Rolo Tomassi, among others. Following the COVID hiatus, RADAR Festival 2022 expanded to three days with triumphant appearances from Leprous, Haken, Dirty Loops, Plini, Conjurer, Soen and more.