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Broadwick Live launches new music initiative

Broadwick Live, the UK promoter and venue operator behind Printworks, Drumsheds and Field Day Festival, is launching a new music initiative.

Under the banner Broadwick Live Presents, the firm will collaborate with some of London’s best-loved clubs to foster up-and-coming talent and “make a healthy contribution to club culture”.

The first collection of shows launch in October and include Otik at the Carpet Shop in Peckham, D.O.D at Phonox and Nils Hoffmann at Electric Brixton.

The firm says the new endeavor will “connect the dots in a new way” by engaging venues operating at all levels, as well as a range of artists from emerging to established talent.

“With one eye firmly on the future, our Broadwick Live Presents events reflect our passion and dedication towards ensuring the most exciting emerging talent in electronic music achieve their potential,” says Jeff Gray, BWL head of music.

“These events reflect our dedication towards ensuring the most exciting emerging talent in electronic music achieve their potential”

“This will involve us hosting events across our favourite London venues, all of which are equally committed to pushing the dance music scene forward. We can’t wait to get started…”

Other Broadwick Live Presents shows include tech-house stalwart Tita Lau at giant warehouse venue E1, DJ and producer hitty at St John’s Hackney and pop-rock band SWIM at the Carpet Shop.

Broadwick Live recently expanded out of London into New York, US, via a transatlantic partnership with independent live music firm TCE Presents.

Together, they have opened a new 5,000-capacity venue in the Brooklyn Navy Yard called Brooklyn Storehouse, which will host concerts from Justice, Charlotte de Witte and Eric Prdyz in the coming months.

See the full list of Broadwick Live Presents shows here:
SWIM @ Carpet Shop [03/10/24]
D.O.D @ Phonox [05/10/24]
Otik Live @ Carpet Shop [10/10/24]
Tita Lau @ E1 [11/10/24]
hitty @ St Johns Hackney [30/11/24]
Nils Hoffmann @ Electric Brixton [07/12/24]

 


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Printworks London set to reopen in 2026

Broadwick Live has revealed it is planning to launch “Printworks 2.0” in 2026 after the acclaimed London venue hosted its final party for at least three years.

The acclaimed 6,000-cap nightclub and events venue shut down on 1 May following an epic closing weekend, which featured sets from acts such as Black Coffee, Maya Jane Coles, Danny Howard, Chloe Caillet and Jaden Thompson.

Leased from developer British Land, Printworks London opened in January 2017 but looked set to close for good after Southwark Council gave the go-ahead for it to be converted into offices.

However, an agreement was reached for the venue to continue to operate in some form in British Land’s Canada Water scheme.

“We are delighted to announce that Printworks hopes to return in three years and that we will continue to work with our partners at British Land to create the future cultural venue that retains the essence of the iconic Press Halls,” says Broadwick’s director of strategy Simeon Aldred.

“Printworks has brought lasting impact to our scene, to our city, to artists and our local community”

“Printworks has brought lasting impact to our scene, to our city, to artists and our local community. The future Printworks venue aims to build on this, bringing together all the best in all electronic music and visual arts, both as well as hosting some of the world’s best orchestras, ballet companies and other art forms.”

The Printworks complex comprises multiple performance spaces in a 16-acre former newspaper printworks in London’s Docklands, and has hosted acts such as Skepta, Gorillaz and Seth Troxler, as well as events including the BBC Proms,  but its use as a cultural space was previously intended to be temporary.

London night czar Amy Lamé also welcomes the news.

“London’s world-famous nightlife is the heartbeat of our capital and Printworks has played a dynamic role bringing together culture, music and entertainment and attracting artists and visitors from all over the world,” she says. “I am delighted there is an exciting future ahead for Printworks and I will continue working with all involved to ensure they thrive.”

 


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Broadwick Live to open new open-air venue in London

UK promoter and venue operator Broadwick Live is to open a new open-air events space in London.

Located within Silvertown Quays, on the bank of the River Thames and opposite ExCel, the 4000,000-square foot Dockyards will open later this year.

According to Broadwick, the venue will be open year-round for music events, film production, cultural events, brand experiences and more.

Bradley Thompson, group managing director of Broadwick Live, says: “We’re really excited to open Dockyards, creating a new centre of cultural gravity for London in the heart of The Royal Docks.

“Dockyards will shape the area through cultural and commercial innovation”

“Dockyards will shape the area through cultural and commercial innovation by bringing a year-round programme of events and activities in partnership with the world’s best. As a Broadwick Live venue, visitors and artists are assured of a world-class experience, while we also deliver meaningful impact for the area and local communities.”

The first event to take place at Dockyards will be Defected London from 3-4 September, followed by Above & Beyond Group Therapy Weekender on 10 and 11 September.

Broadwick Live’s portfolio includes London venues, Printworks (cap. 6,000) and The Drumsheds (10,000), as well as Manchester’s Depot at Mayfield.

The Drumsheds opened its doors in 2019 for that year’s Field Day festival and closed permanently at the beginning of this year.

 


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Broadwick’s new London venue open for business

Exhibition London, the third new venue this year from the team behind the venue Printworks, has opened its doors at Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush, west London.

The new venue and event space, first announced in February this year, held its official opening last night (Wednesday 20 November). Spanning an area of 1,271 square metres over two floors, Exhibition London has a standing capacity of 2,396 and can accommodate 1,365 in “theatre-style” seating.

A collaborative project with shopping centre operator Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the venue forms part of the £8 billion regeneration of the White City district of London and is housed in a grade-II listed building that formerly served as a power station for the London Underground.

“I am excited to be bringing this amazing new venue to market as I feel London lacks spaces of this size”

Exhibition London is the latest UK venue in the fast-growing portfolio of promoter and venue operator Broadwick Live and full-service agency Venue Lab, which includes Printworks and the Drumsheds. The team opened its first purpose-built destination, Magazine London (7,000-cap.), earlier this year.

Venue Lab will be responsible for all corporate event management at the venue, currently taking bookings from January 2020 onwards.

“I am excited to be bringing this amazing new venue to market as I feel London lacks spaces of this size,” comments Broadwick Live director and Venue Lab CEO, Simon Tracey.

“We have carefully designed [Exhibition London] to be a tailor-made event space with luxury features to enhance its original heritage characteristics. I hope it will play a key role in the White City regeneration project, helping to further identify the area as a mixed-use development, a place to live, work and play.”

 


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Venue Lab, Broadwick Live talk “disrupting” London venues

Magazine London, a brand-new, multi-use venue in North Greenwich, opened its doors last week, as the latest event space in the fast-growing portfolio of Printworks operators, Venue Lab and Broadwick Live.

Venue Lab’s and Broadwick Live’s first purpose-built destination features a 3,000-capacity indoor, industrial-style space, adaptable to cater for live shows, corporate dinners or conferences. A mezzanine floor and terrace form a “ready-made” VIP area and outside, a 7,000-capacity showground offers a versatile space for brand activations with views across the river to Canary Wharf.

“We wanted to take all the difficult aspects of putting on an event and find solutions in advance,” Venue Lab chief executive Simon Tracey tells IQ. “The idea is to be really versatile, so this can be the right space for any kind of event, on any day of the week.”

Venue Lab is a Vibration Group company, a collective of creative event businesses, specialising in venue management and ownership, production services and event brands. This allows the Venue Lab team to plug their own services into the venues they operate, meaning everything from set design to production to staffing is done “in house”.

Broadwick Live, operator of venues the Drumsheds, Exhibition London and Depot at Mayfield and promoter of festivals such as Snowbombing and Field Day, acts as Venue Lab’s “ticketed culture partner”.

Venue Lab started working with Broadwick Live for the programming of London event space, Printworks. The phone rang “off the hook” with promoters wanting to use the space once Venue Lab took it over, says Tracey, but the team wanted to manage it “properly”, avoid negative impact on the surrounding area and ensure they could rely on those they worked with.

“We wanted to take all the difficult aspects of putting on an event and find solutions in advance”

“We could have booked content from lots of different promoters but we wanted to have more control over what happened at the venue,” explains Tracey. “If someone comes to a ticketed event and doesn’t enjoy it, they immediately think it’s the venue’s fault. We wanted to make sure that every experience someone has in one of our venues is a good one.”

Broadwick Live’s background in destination-based, immersive festivals, such as Snowbombing in the Alps and Festival No.6 in Portmeirion, Wales, made them the perfect fit for Venue Lab. “They’re about more than just a stage in a field,” says Tracey, “they excel in creating interesting experiences, so culturally it was inevitable we’d work well together.”

The content at Printworks is not all wholly owned by Broadwick Live, adds Tracey. “Broadwick Live works with lots of different promoters, but they manage the overall programming and operations, so we know they will always deliver.”

The success of Printworks, which has become a “phenomenon” since opening in 2017, has led to the development of a “brilliant” collaborative relationship between both Venue Lab and Broadwick Live. “Collectively, we can do it all,” says Tracey, “and that makes us really unique.”

Another aspect that allows both Venue Lab and Broadwick Live to stand out from the crowd is the companys’ aim to build “brands” or “spaces” rather than venues, creating something more special than “just another nameless box”.

Tracey points to their current portfolio of spaces – such as disused train station Depot at Mayfield, former printing press Printworks, old gasworks The Drumsheds or more traditional corporate venues Landing Forty Two and grade II-listed The Pumping House – stating they are all “very different from a branding perspective”.

“I genuinely believe there’s a lot more capacity in London for all sorts of venues”

Situated in plain sight of AEG’s O2 Arena and sharing the same underground station, has the creation of Magazine London not led to tension, with worries over competition and accessibility for fans?

On the contrary, says the Magazine team, we are “good neighbours” with the O2 and meet regularly.

“They know we are not running the same kind of venue as them, the only challenge is transport but we have meetings to plan for this and have developed a really coordinated approach,” says Tracey.

In other areas, people would be “more protective” about the space, comments Tracey, but one of the benefits of being part of the Greenwich Peninsular development is that it brings everyone together and diffuses this, with businesses forming partnerships to make the Peninsular as desirable a destination as possible.

Even the impending creation of the 21,500-capacity MSG Sphere, which has caused tension with AEG, does not faze the Magazine team.

“I genuinely believe there’s a lot more capacity in London for all sorts of venues,” says Tracey in reference to a possible saturation of the market. “It’s such a multicultural city and London is actually quite behind in terms of event spaces.”

“People are craving experiences, and as they do, there’s ever more evolution of what that experience is”

Following the success of Printworks, Venue Lab and Broadwick Live have launched three new venues this year – Magazine London, the Drumsheds and Exhibition London, which opens in November – and plans to work collaboratively in opening three to five more venues each year, “for the next three years”, in London, other major UK cities, and across Europe.

Although the old-school nightclub is becoming more challenging and it is getting harder for festivals to “make it work”, the demand for venues that offer interesting experiences to fans and a versatile space to organisers is far from satisfied.

“People are craving experiences, and as they do, there’s ever more evolution of what that experience is,” states Tracey. “Events are getting bigger, better and more immersive – everyone is raising their game.”

Magazine London has already attracted a wide variety of public and private events ahead of 2020. From brand events, awards dinners, conferences, exhibitions, fashion, the arts and ticketed culture; there are 22 events confirmed between September 2019 and the end of the year.

Upcoming events include sold-out Michael Bibi Presents Isolate, World Travel Market’s International Travel and Tourism Awards and Stylist Live LUXE. The venue hosted Desperados’ ‘Epic House Party’ last weekend (Saturday 7 September), in which 3,000 attendees crossed its threshold to mark Magazine London’s official opening.

 


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Drumsheds, Exhibition London for hire with Venue Lab

Broadwick Venues, the venue arm of festival promoter Broadwick Live, has appointed Venue Lab to manage all venue hire for new event spaces the Drumsheds and Exhibition London.

The venue operator has announced the partnership on the back of a successful collaboration with Venue Lab at popular London venue Printworks. The company will manage corporate, brand and filming bookings and will be solely responsible for all venue hire management for the new event spaces.

Venue Lab is a Vibration Group company and the creator of event spaces including Printworks London (6,000-cap.), Landing Forty Two and The Pumping House, Dock X London, Thirty Eight Grosvenor Square and the recently launched Magazine London (3,000-cap.).

“Following our very successful partnership at Printworks London, Venue Lab is the natural choice to help us develop the Drumsheds and Exhibition London as new cultural spaces for the city,” comments Broadwick Venues managing director Bradley Thompson.

Announced earlier this month, the Drumsheds is a ten-acre outdoor events space with four giant interlinking warehouses, offering a total indoor capacity of 10,000. The venue hosts its inaugural event on 7 June, with the first of Broadwick Live’s weekend-long Field Day festival.

“Venue Lab is the natural choice to help us develop the Drumsheds and Exhibition London as new cultural spaces for the city”

Field Day is one of several festivals suspected to remain under Broadwick Live’s control, following the takeover of the festival arm of its former owner, Global, by Providence-Equity backed Superstruct Entertainment. Broadwick is believed to be undertaking a management buyback of its shares from Global.

Scheduled to open at the end of 2019, Exhibition London will transform a Victorian Grade II Dimco East building in Shepherd’s Bush – originally used as an electricity generating station for the London Underground – into a multi-purpose music and events venues with a standing capacity of 1,400.

Spanning two floors, the 34,000sqft venue is currently taking bookings for events taking place from January 2020.

“We are very excited to be partnering with Broadwick Venues and further expanding our portfolio,” says Venue Lab’s director of venues, Claire Pastore.

“Venue Lab has a proven track record of finding, activating and delivering thought-provoking spaces both commercially and to create destinations,” adds Pastore.

Superstruct, Broadwick divvy up Global festival portfolio

 

 


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Broadwick to open new venue, Exhibition London, in Shepherd’s Bush

Broadwick Venues, the venue arm of UK festival promoter Broadwick Live, has announced plans for a major new music venue and events space at the Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush, west London.

Scheduled to open at the end of 2019, Exhibition London – named after its proximity to the site of the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908 – will repurpose the grade II-listed Dimco East building, a Victorian structure originally built as an electricity generating station for the London Underground, as a 3,000-capacity events venue.

Conceived by Broadwick Venues – also owner/operator of the Printworks venue in Canada Water – the 34,000sqft venue is “primed to host high-profile live music events, brand experiences, product launches, exhibitions, conferences, award ceremonies and community events”, according to Broadwick, which says Exhibition forms part of a string of new venues planned across the UK.

Bradley Thompson, MD of Broadwick Live and Venues, says: “Exhibition represents an important moment in the evolution of Westfield London, creating a unique entertainment hub and enhancing the area’s cultural kudos. It will attract and serve not only the local community, but the ever-increasing number of people who rightly view White City [north of Shepherd’s Bush] as one of the most exciting growth places in the capital. The location is perfect and the building itself is incredible.

“The location is perfect and the building itself is incredible”

“We are committed to respecting its past and investing in its future, offering fantastic, contemporary experiences against a stunning Victorian backdrop.”

Michel Dessolain, COO, Europe, for Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, which operates the shopping centre, adds: “Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield creates unique and innovative destinations globally where our customers can shop, dine, be entertained and connect. Our partnership with Broadwick Venues, one of the biggest players in the events industry in the UK, and through the support of London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, will deliver an amazing new entertainment experience and will be a leading new events venue in London.”

Work begins on Exhibition – located less than half a mile away from the long-running 2,000-cap. Shepherd’s Bush Empire venue, operated by Academy Music Group – ahead of its opening later this year.

Vibration Group, Broadwick’s partner on Printworks, has announced plans for its own 3,000-cap. venue on the Greenwich peninsula, Magazine, close to the O2 – while Madison Square Garden is plotting an arena in the vicinity of London’s other Westfield, in Stratford.

 


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New 3,000-cap. venue, Magazine London, to open in Greenwich

A new 3,000-capacity music and events venue, Magazine London, is set to open in Greenwich in 2019.

Magazine will be operated by Vibration Group, the company behind Printworks in Canada Water, and is intended to host concerts, parties, exhibitions, conferences and other events.

The Magazine site will also be home to a 7,000-cap. outdoor festival/events site, dubbed the Showground, on the Greenwich peninsula, close to the O2 Arena.

“Working with Knight Dragon is an incredible opportunity,” says Simon Tracey, Vibration Group CEO. “They are an extremely dynamic company with a proven international track record and developments in four continents.

“London is still very much at the forefront of live events globally, and Magazine, with its incredible flexibility both indoor and out, is groundbreaking.”

“As well as the O2… Magazine London adds another dimension, and another destination, to [Greenwich] peninsula”

Richard Margree, CEO of property company Knight Dragon, which has invested a “multimillion-pound” sum into the project, adds: “Magazine London fits superbly with what we’re doing on Greenwich Peninsula: creating a new London underpinned by creativity, a community with culture and entertainment at its heart. As well as the hugely successful O2, and the Design District opening in 2020, Magazine London adds another dimension, and another destination, to the emerging peninsula.”

“It’s a pivotal moment for Venue Lab and hugely significant for London,” comments Vibration Group’s strategy and creative director, Simeon Aldred. “Greenwich peninsula is a flagship global development and one of the single largest regeneration projects in Europe.

“To be developing a brand new cultural venue here is exciting for us and crucial in place-making, adding to the cultural diversity and investment Knight Dragon are bringing to the area.”

Construction of Magazine London begins December 2018, for an expected opening in summer 2019.

 


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Printworks reveals plans for 3,000-cap. live room

Printworks London, the 5,000-capacity electronic music venue that opened in south-east London last January, has revealed ambitious plans to launch a new 3,000-cap. live room hosting “some of the biggest and most acclaimed live acts today”.

The venue, booked by festival promoter Broadwick Live (Snowbombing, Festival №6, Field Day), opened its doors in January 2017 on the site of a former newspaper printworks in Canada Water. Since then it has specialised in electronic music, although operator Vibration Group hopes the new-format live space will also transform the venue into a “key tour stop for live music artists”, as well as a home for more general arts and culture programming.

The new room opens this Friday (23 March) with a show by Django Django, followed by multi-instrumentalist Tokio Myers on 10 April and Pendulum on 14 April.

Arts and culture programming will be overseen by Tamsin Ace, head of festival programme at London’s Southbank Centre.

“We feel hugely privileged to have helped breathe life back into this remarkable landmark”

“We feel hugely privileged to have helped breathe life back into this remarkable landmark since it opened its doors as a venue in 2017,” says Broadwick Live MD Bradley Thompson. “It was always our ambition for Printworks to lead the way not just in era-defining electronic music events, but across all arts.

“In Printworks, we truly believe that we have one of the most incredible venues there is today, and we’re absolutely committed to giving people unparalleled production, programming and experiences throughout the cultural spectrum.”

“I’m excited to be part of the team creating a new arts and culture programme for Printworks,” adds Ace. With such a different space to play with, Printworks offers the opportunity for artists to create something truly unique.”

 


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Printworks announces launch line-up

New London venue Printworks has revealed details of Issue 001, its inaugural concert series, scheduled for next February.

The 5,000-cap. venue – which, as reported by IQ last month, comprises six performance spaces in a 16-acre former newspaper printworks in east London’s Docklands – is currently awaiting planning permission for a “culture, music and arts space”, but is apparently confident enough it will be approved to announce a line-up of weekly programming up to the end of April.

Highlights include a Seth Troxler-headlined launch “extravaganza” on 4 February; a Snowbombing-presented event on 11 Feb (Snowboming promoter Broadwick Live is, with LWE, programming the venue); Nina Kraviz on 25 March; and a Melt Festival party on 18 March, headlined by techno DJ Chris Liebing.

A full line-up can be viewed on the Printworks website.

“Making the most of Printworks’ unique setting, bizarre and curious machinery will be left in situ”

Each event will run for ten hours, from midday to 10pm, across two rooms, taking full advantage of the venue’s former life as a Metro and Evening Standard printing facility.

“Making the most of Printworks’ unique setting,” says LWE, “bizarre and curious machinery will be left in situ, and the soundproofed main space allows for those attending the events to enjoy the music without disturbing the local community. Each event will benefit from bespoke production with fully-fitted L-Acoustic and SB28 loudspeakers, custom-designed mechanical lighting truss and over 100 lasers and spotlights to illuminate the dramatic industrial features.”

Local residents will be eligible for 50 free tickets to all ticketed events, and have access to a space within the venue dedicated to community use.

 


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