Sybil Bell talks to Dom Smith of Soundsphere about the creation of Independent Venue Week, and how that inspired Independent Venue Community, alongside her love for Hull and the North of England’s creative scene.
“Music is such an important part of people’s lives, even for people who don’t believe that they really listen to it. If you took music out of a 24 hour period, I think people would be staggered at where it is and I think that’s what makes it so exciting.” says Sybil Bell, founder of Independent Venue Week.
Recently celebrating a decade since its launch, Independent Venue week is a seven day long celebration of Independent music and arts venues as well as the people who own and run them. Thinking back to the first IVW, Bell comments:
“When I set IVW up, I owned a venue which had been very challenging and setting up IVW was really a way to say let’s stop assuming that these venues are going to be here all the time, let’s stop taking them for granted and let’s celebrate them and have a positive moment in the calendar for them.” She continues “It was inspired by Record Store Day, but I wanted to do a week because what happens within a venue changes. You start with local bands, Spoken word and open mics at the beginning and as the week goes on comes touring acts, international acts. But come Sunday you’re back to a more of a chilled vibe.
Through the work that Independent Venue Week has done in the last 10 years, Bell now feels that it is time to respond to the broader needs of the workforce and communities which access, own, work in, or operate from independent music venues. The Independent Venue Community is a programme which hopes to support Independent venues and the development of skills and talent of those working in them, while also providing creative career opportunities for those in the live music community through participatory daytime workshops with industry specialists.
It was during a visit to The Warren Youth Project in Hull that Bell realised that something needed to be done for marginalised communities. She recalls,“I went up to Hull and had a look around The Warren and I left in tears. Just that level of engagement and care for young people in Hull who have felt worthless or like there’s nowhere else for them to go and then there’s this whole world opened up for them, where they’re supported and encouraged and given skills and a purpose and I just came away thinking that we should have this everywhere.”
Since then, Bell has run workshops across the UK for young people who want to work in live music, which include tutorial sessions, Q&A with industry specialists and practical sessions to see it in action. Believing that there is a whole network of venues which would want to provide experiences and opportunities, the IVC was created which has programmes aimed at giving young people opportunities.
“We started workshops with young people which are now called Soundcheck Sessions which is just where young people can go in and watch a soundcheck. Now we’ve also created another course called BE, where you get a bit more in-depth training and hear from other professionals. Through running IVW continuously just meeting other people, we came across organisation like Attitude Is Everything which is all about accessibility and disability, and through that I met an artist called Chris Halpin who has worked with Imogen Heap and we were able to put him on a tour, to support venues and artists with accessibility and that tour was fantastic and was able to open a door for new conversations.”
As IVW began to work with increasing initiatives and putting on more programmes, it began to feel quite separate and more community based and so, the Independent Venue Community was launched. Commenting on this Sybil Bell states, “To me it just made sense that with all these spaces which are mostly shut during the day and with all these community groups desperate for somewhere to run their courses what better way to put them together.”
“I think that it’s going to be bigger than Independent Venue Week, it’s definitely going to run all year round and I’m just excited because there is so much talent in this country that we need to unlock and it’s not just in city centres and we’ve got venues in every nook and cranny of this country and there’s that saying, If you see it you can be it and that’s what we want to do.” says Bell.
More information about Independent Venue Week or Independent Venue community can be found below
https://independentvenueweek.com/uk/about/
https://independentvenuecommunity.com/about/
Interview: Dom Smith / Words: Meg Barton
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