Festival

Festival

More than 70 paid gigs have been created for emerging acts by Pirate

A Pirate Stage will be present at Boomtown 2023, with 25 paid gigs in total.

On March 6th, Pirate announced their latest round of artist opportunities. Pirate Residency 2023: Summer On Stage is designed to offer emerging artists paid gig slots and airplay to help combat a downwards trend in the number of new acts coming onto UK festival lineups.

“Many live events operate with tight margins, but emerging acts performing at profit-driving events without a fee isn’t sustainable for the artists. We’re working with all of our partners to make sure every gig we offer is paid.” – Rebecca Mason-Evans, Residency Lead (Pirate)
Partnering with El Dorado (Herefordshire), Cross The Tracks (London), The Empire State Music And Arts Festival (New York), AVA Club (Berlin) and a host of other festivals and gig venues across the UK, US and Germany, Pirate has created over 70 performance opportunities at 28 festivals and venues.

“We are lucky enough to work in music and it’s our responsibility to help bring passionate and talented people through.” – Representative, Cross The Tracks

Today, Pirate also announced their own stage at Boomtown 2023, to be curated entirely from artists in their community, which accounts for 25 paid gigs.

6 US and UK radio stations will also open for guest mixes and track submissions through Pirate Residency: Reprezent, Voices, Transatlantic Lines, KPFK, SNS Radio (from Sneakersnstuff) and Croydon FM.

Pirate has received over 1,000 submissions to their Summer Residency programme so far, 70% of which are from male identifying artists. Pirate strongly encourages female and gender nonconforming artists to apply before the deadline on March 27th.

As well as a gig or radio slot, Pirate residents will receive £250 studio credit to use in any of Pirate’s 24-hour rehearsal, recording, DJ, dance and podcast studios, a share of £5,000 Paradise Worldwide vouchers for career development, and mentorship from some of the industry’s brightest minds.

So far, more DJs have applied for the scheme than any other discipline (over 30% of applicants). Only 6% of applications come from MCs, 24% come from bands. Artists of all disciplines and genres are eligible, applicants must simply select the relevant opportunities when applying through the dedicated page on the Pirate website.