The 1975’s Matty Healy Backs New Festival to Boost U.K. Grassroots Venues: ‘Music Doesn’t Start in Boardrooms or Big Arenas’

Over 1,000 pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels across 20 U.K. towns and cities will unite as part of the launch of a first-of-its-kind new music festival later this year – backed by The 1975’s Matty Healy.

The event, dubbed the Seed Sounds Weekender, is set to take place Sept. 26-28 and feature more than 2,000 performances from local artists. Cities taking part include London, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh, among others, while a full list can be found here.

Presented by live music marketplace Gigpig, the event will celebrate the key role ‘seed music venues’ play in cultivating the U.K.’s future headliners. Festival partners include Uber, Genre Music, UseYourLocal and the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA). Major hospitality players include Stonegate Group, Laine Pub Co., New World Trading Company, BrewDog, Diecast, and Boom Battle Bars.

Attendees can access most gigs via a free Seed Sounds Weekender ticket, which are available now via the festival’s official website. It is slated to be the largest multi-venue music event in the U.K. to date, with an aim to spotlight the rooms that play a key role in launching artists’ careers who go on to significantly contribute to the U.K. economy. Line-ups for the venues will be announced in due course.

The festival launches with support from Matty Healy, frontman of The 1975 and Seed Sounds Weekender ambassador. In a statement, he said: “Local venues aren’t just where bands cut their teeth, they’re the foundation of any real culture.”

He added, “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.”

He continued: “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.”

Launched in 2022, Manchester-based live entertainment platform Gigpig allows independent hospitality venues in the U.K. to book shows directly, driving visibility for newer acts.

As per a press release, Gigpig have said that the grassroots venue sector in the U.K. collectively hosts over three million gigs annually, nurtures over 43,000 active musicians, and contributes an estimated £2.4 billion ($3.2 billion) annually to the economy, with £500 million ($667.7 million) of that directly in artist fees.

“The U.K.’s seed venues are where music careers are born,” notes Kit Muir-Rogers, co-founder GigPig. “Collectively, this space promotes more music than any other in the live music business, yet it has gone overlooked and underappreciated. 

“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.”