Independent Venue Week (IVW) will return next year from January 27 to February 2, 2025.
IVW is the UK’s annual seven-day celebration of independent music and arts venues and the people that own, run and work in them.
The artist ambassador for IVW2025 is jazz musician, broadcaster, philanthropist and author YolanDa Brown OBE DL, who this year opened a new independent music venue and restaurant, Soul Mama, based in Stratford, London.
Over the course of the week-long IVW initiative, independent venues come together with artists, promoters, agents, record labels and media to create a series of special live events across the UK to highlight and celebrate the work of these venues.
In 2024, more than 200 venues took part, hosting over 800 events.
YolanDa Brown was the first artist to win a Best Jazz MOBO award over two consecutive years. She has toured with artists including The Temptations, Billy Ocean and Jools Holland, and collaborated extensively with the likes of Dave Stewart, Kelly Jones and Rick Astley.
As a broadcaster and educator, YolanDa Brown was BAFTA-nominated for CBeebies series YolanDa’s Band Jam. She also has a weekly Saturday show on Jazz FM, and a weekly classical music show on Magic Classical, alongside numerous other radio and TV projects. She is currently composing music for Sesame Street, animated series Bea’s Block on Sky Kids, as well as the Netflix series CoComelon Lane.
Brown is also a respected spokeswoman and industry voice, currently serving as chair of the BPI, as an ambassador for the King’s Trust and the London Music Fund, as a trustee of the PRS Foundation, on the National Council at Arts Council England and a board member London Philharmonic Orchestra. She is also a trustee of Independent Venue Community, the new charity established by Independent Venue Week in 2024. In 2023, she received an OBE for services to music, music education and broadcasting.
Following a record-breaking crowdfunding campaign, YolanDa Brown has opened Soul Mama, a brand new live music venue and restaurant in Stratford, London.
She will play a special IVW show at the venue on Saturday, February 1, when she will perform her new show Bob Marley Songbook in celebration of what would have been Bob Marley's 80th birthday year. Other IVW shows at Soul Mama include Omar Puente Charanga Sextet (January 31) with more to be announced.
Previous IVW Artist Ambassadors have included 2024 Mercury Prize winners English Teacher, as well as Wet Leg, Beabadoobee, Philip Selway, Arlo Parks, Anna Calvi, Wolf Alice, Nadine Shah, Colin Greenwood, Adrian Utley and Novelist.
It’s incredibly exciting for us to bring a new audience to our celebration and share some wonderful stories of our amazing community
Sybil Bell
Sybil Bell, IVW founder and CEO, said: “We’ve been incredibly fortunate to have a really broad range of IVW Ambassadors over the years including those at the start of their careers to household names, as well as a wide range of genres. This year, with YolanDa, we’re honoured to not only have such an accomplished musician but also an esteemed industry figure and new venue owner.
“Many of YolanDa’s fans and followers will be new to Independent Venue Week and it’s incredibly exciting for us to bring a new audience to our celebration and share some wonderful stories of our amazing community.”
YolanDa Brown said: “Independent venues are, and will always remain important to the music ecosystem. They are the heartbeat of the live experience, not just for artists but for audiences as well. Within these intimate spaces, countless stories are told – some songs and performances may never transcend the walls, yet they leave a lasting mark, offering hope, joy, inspiration, and sometimes even tears. These venues are the breeding grounds and an important outlet for creativity and expression. As a new venue owner, it is important to have more diversity in music venue ownership in order to create a platform for new stories to be told.”
Independent venues are, and will always remain important to the music ecosystem
YolanDa Brown
To date, 149 venues have already confirmed to participate in #IVW25, with over 200 expected to sign up by the deadline of December 6th 2024. Of those, six are located in villages, 38 in towns and 70 in cities, all supported by a network of IVW representatives in every region and nation across the UK.
In addition to Soul Mama, there are also 23 other venues who will take part in IVW for first time, including:
Artisan Tap, Stoke-on-Trent
Billy Bootleggers, Nottingham
Dingwalls, London
DIVE, Wolverhampton
Full Of Noises, Barrow-in-Furness
Granary Arts Cafe, Nantwich
Hangover Hill, Poole
Hootananny Brixton, London
Jacaranda Baltic, Liverpool
Paradise Palms, Edinburgh
Pocklington Arts Centre, York
Saltbox, Nottingham
The Boat Shack Cafe, Bromsgrove
The Drill, Lincoln
The Garibaldi Hotel, Northampton
The Hallamshire Hotel, Sheffield
The Hive, Edinburgh
The Love Inn, Bristol
The Old Cold Store, Nottingham
The Studio, Nantwich
The Vinyl Whistle, Leeds
The White Room Music Café, Co Durham
Walthamstow Trades Hall, East London
New shows will also be added regularly and presented on the IVW website.
Artists already confirmed to appear during the week include Ibibio Sound Machine, The Lounge Society, Gilles Peterson, The Bug Club, Dodgy, Heavy Lungs, The Blockheads, C Duncan, Lizzie Esau + Dirty Blonde, Elucid, Avalanche Party, Do Nothing and Utah Saints. More shows will be announced in the weeks leading up to January 27, including some truly special headline events.
Since 2014, more than one million tickets have been sold for IVW events.
IVW has also recruited Gabby Chelmicka to the team as head of operations and partnerships.
With over 25 years’ experience of working in the creative industries, Chelmicka played a key role in Robbie Williams’ management for over 10 years and was integral in the organisation of his early tours, including gigs at Slane Castle in 1999 and Knebworth in 2003. She was co-executive Producer on the 2023 Netflix series, Robbie Williams.
Chelmicka has also been music business lecturer at BIMM, spent three years working for Arts Council England and played a key role in events including Glastonbury and Banksy’s Dismaland, as well as mentoring young people on various talent development programmes across the South West.
Arts Council England, Beavertown, TuneCore, PPL, Rockbox and the Welsh Government via Creative Wales will all be official partners in 2025.
PHOTO: Agenda
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