T-shirts, hoodies, and records are some of the most common types of merchandise sold at live music gigs. In most cases, artists manufacture their own merchandise for sale. (Cr : Pexels) Almost one in five Birmingham music venues is taking a percentage of performers’ merchandise sales — dubbed a ‘merch tax’ — according to an exclusive analysis of data by Birmingham Eastside. The scale of the controversial practice was revealed after Birmingham Eastside asked 32 venues in the city to share their rules on merchandise commissions. Six take a commission from the sale of performers’ merchandise. The practice of venues…
Author: Nathan Hogg
The Flatpack Festival, which takes place over several venues around Birmingham, boasts a new “comedy strand” headed up by Joe Lycett and Alistair Green for its 2022 rendition. Belgian band Frankie’s Laguna Beach, set to perform in this year’s Festival (Cr. Flatpack Festival) The festival first began as “7 Inch Cinema”, a mixed-media night in Digbeth. The first eponymous Flatpack Festival took place in 2006 and has remained in Digbeth ever since. Previously, comedy was a background concept amongst Flatpack’s celebrations of film, filmmakers, music, and artists – but this year the Festival is going all out on comedy with…
A Birmingham campaign group has won a small victory in securing a green space in Birmingham’s £1.9bn Smithfield construction project but fear the parks limited size won’t attract visitors. Birmingham Smithfield site as of April 2022. The new district, set to be located near the Bullring open markets, recently went into public consultation over proposed plans for the site, which include a green space which is less than half the size of Cathedral Green. CityPark4Brum began in 2015, highlighting the lack of a large park in Birmingham, a mainstay of other large cities across the world such as New York’s…