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Highlights at the company's venues included special anniversary runs at London's The Garage and Rescue Rooms in Nottingham
By James Hanley on 10 Jan 2024
George Akins
Independent UK venue operator and promoter DHP Family has entered the new year with confidence after reporting a record year in 2023.
The Nottingham-headquartered company welcomed more than 1.5 million people through its doors in 2023 across its portfolio of venues, shows, tours, club nights and festivals, and says sales for its 2024 offering are strong.
“It feels like the gloom of the early 2020s is becoming a distant memory now that we’ve moved past our final pandemic rescheduled shows and all areas of the business are trading very well,” says DHP Family MD George Akins, who sums up 2023 as “a great year across the board for us”.
“I’m very proud of what we have achieved, from sold out events, to record beating club nights; exceptional funds raised for our charity partner Framework, and an expanded festival offering, which included for the first time, the four-day camping event Bearded Theory – a personal highlight of the year,” he adds.
Highlights included a sellout 30th anniversary run of shows at London’s The Garage and a special 20th anniversary week of events at Rescue Rooms in Nottingham.
“We really showed both that we build things that last, but we don’t rest on our laurels and are continually moving forward”
“The cost of living crisis, and everything getting way more expensive in touring continue to be huge challenges for the industry as a whole, but I’m proud of the way our independent and flexible organisation at DHP is able to deal with everything that’s thrown at us, and deliver a stellar programme of tours and festivals,” adds director of live Anton Lockwood.
“It’s been great to see our venues The Garage and Rescue Rooms reaching the milestones of 30 and 20 years respectively celebrating with incredible shows from the likes of Dinosaur Jr, Frank Turner, Mogwai and Sugababes. At the same time we relentlessly developed new artists like Kneecap, Antony Szmierek, Cardinal Black, L’Imperatrice and Green Lung – we really showed both that we build things that last, but we don’t rest on our laurels and are continually moving forward.”
In addition, DHP promoters Scott Kennedy, Conrad Rogan and Josh Ward worked on sellout shows by the likes of High Vis, Prima Queen and Viagra Boys.
The team also put on more festivals than ever before, including Beat The Streets in support of Framework; Foolhardy Folk Festival in collaboration with Beans on Toast; metropolitan festival Dot To Dot taking place on consecutive days in Bristol and Nottingham; four-day camping festival Bearded Theory at Catton Park, Derbyshire; Splendour in Nottingham and the returning MIRRORS in London.
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