Our talent development work is supported by PRS Foundation, the UK’s leading funder of new music and talent development.
Emerging Artists
We’re proud to be one of the 40 PRS Foundation Talent Development partners in the UK, and along with funding from Help Musicians UK and Arts Council England, we’re investing in the next generation of UK talent.
We believe that to ensure the richness and diversity of the UK’s music industry it is vital we invest in the talent for the future.
The landscape of our grass-roots music industry has changed dramatically in the past decade. UK Music has found that 35% of music venues have closed since 2008, significantly reducing the chances for up and coming musicians to develop their skills in front of audiences and grow a following.
Bristol Music Trust is working to address this change in industry landscape by supporting our future music talent pipeline through ensuring that emerging artists have access to professional live performance opportunities.
How we support emerging artists
At Bristol Beacon, we invest directly in our artistic programme and the artists that perform here or as part of our programme at venues across the city. With funding from PRS Foundation we’re working to directly support 32 new music acts in 2019 by:
- booking 20 developing artists with a national profile
- supporting 6 developing artists with a Bristol or South West profile as a headline act
- supporting 6 emerging local artists to perform as support acts for headline artists
Examples of events and artists we’ve supported
Bristol Takeover, Sat 7 Oct 2017 at Bristol Beacon
As part of our 150th anniversary celebrations, we presented Bristol Takeover; a one-day mini-festival celebrating a mass of Bristol’s bands, DJs, musicians, labels and party makers in performance spaces across our venue complex.
Emerging artists we supported included: H Hawkline, Girl Ray, Susso, China Bowls, Visible Cloaks, Alpha, Yama, Warashi, No Go Stop, The Evil Usses, Goan Dogs, Moonflowers, Oro Swimming Hour, ThisIsDA
Multi-Track Showcase, Sat 27 Oct 2018 at Arnolfini
In October 2018 we presented our Multi-Track Showcase where we shone a light on new music from some of Bristol’s most exciting underground artists. The showcase included performances from artists Splitz P, Charece and Solomon O.B, who we have supported with a year of professional development through Multi-Track’s Home Grown Heat strand, plus grime artist Yizzy and a headline set from UK rapper Ms Banks.
Find out more about the talent development opportunities offered by our Multi-Track programme here.
Headline and support acts
We programme developing artists with a national profile and local artists as support acts. Here is a selection of some of the artists we’ve worked with.
Are you an emerging artist?
We’re always on the lookout for great new artists. If you’re making music in Bristol, we might be able to support you in getting professional live performance opportunities.
Please contact our programming department via programming@bristolbeacon.org
Supported by
Help Musicians UK is the leading UK charity for professional musicians of all genres, from starting out through to retirement.