A grassroots music festival supported by over 1,000 UK-based pubs, bars and small venues has gained the backing of The 1975 frontman Matty Healy.
The Seed Sounds Weekender, running from 26-28th September 2025, will be presented by live music platform GigPig and has been set up to support the live music scene whilst spotlighting emerging talent.
It aims to celebrate and revive the venues where many of the UK’s most iconic acts first took the stage, which Healy has raised concerns over the risk of losing.
“Local venues aren’t just where bands cut their teeth, they’re the foundation of any real culture,” he said.
“Without them, you don’t get The Smiths, Amy Winehouse, or The 1975. You get silence.”
These so-called ‘seed venues’ – the first stepping stones in an artist’s journey – have been hit hard in recent years by rising costs, closures, the Covid-19 pandemic and reduced support.
According to the British Beer and Pub Association, more than 370 pubs are projected to close in 2025, citing rising energy costs and taxes as key challenges.
Kit Muir-Rogers, co-founder of GigPig, added: “It’s a challenging time out there for the hospitality sector, and it’s a challenging time as an artist out there.
“The Seed Sounds Weekender is a moment to unite and celebrate what we think is the most exciting and probably the most vital step on an artist’s journey.”
Despite the struggles within the sector, the Manchester-based firm, which was a member on BusinessCloud’s GM Rising Stars of 2025, is set to make £14.5m from 60,000 gigs in 2025.
Muir-Rogers, who was a speaker at the GM Rising Stars of Business launch event, believes that there can be a demand for pub-based music nights, which has been proven in the response to the organisation of the festival.
“No-one’s really pulled it under a banner before. It’s never really been called anything,” he continued.
“Now it’s widely being called seed music and seed venues, which really does paint that picture incredibly well – you plant those first seeds to watch them grow into the Glastonbury headliners of tomorrow.”
Though Healy won’t perform at the event, he is acting as its ambassador. The popular singer, whose band has previously headlined iconic UK festivals including Glastonbury and Leeds & Reading Festival, has been vocal in stressing the importance of seed venues.
He explained: “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.
“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.”