As of Thursday the 16th July, two of Manchester’s best musical institutions, The Deaf Institute and Gorilla, have had to close their doors for good.
The venues have provided countless amounts of entertainment from live gigs, to club nights and comedy. In doing so they have enhanced the culture of both Manchester’s music scene and its night life.
Here at Gigmouths they made up 2 of the original 12 venues we were planning to promote. It’s a huge loss to us, and much more importantly, a huge loss to the people of Manchester.
Hope for the Venue’s
In the hours after the announcement, the people of Manchester responded in force. Fans of the venues posted an overwhelming number of supporting, personal messages to social media.
Manchester’s councillors heard loud and clear. The city’s Night Time Economy Adviser, Sacha Lord, tweeted out a message of solidarity shortly after the news broke out.
Mayor Andy Burnham also commented on the news saying “Anyone who knows me knows that I love these two places”.
On top of being vocal and supportive about the venue closure, the two have also been heavily involved in trying to secure a quick sale of the two buildings in the hope they can re-open in the future and still remain grassroots venues.
The day after the announcement, Sacha Lord gave a message of hope to the many movements people had created in support of the two venue’s.
Hopefully this means another firm will be able to take on these two brilliant places and restore them. The names and branding of the locations will likely change, but if that ensures the two venues are not lost, then its fantastic news for anyone involved in the live music sector.
How to support
There are many ways to help both these venues and the many other amazing grassroots venues across Manchester:
- Keep up the momentum of the Deaf institute/Gorilla movement.
At the moment there is a huge amount of backing online and across social media for the two closing venues. People involved in the deal have already picked up on this. Continued energy will prevent the issue from being pushed aside. - Post and share on social media about other grassroots venues.
Most of the small venues in the city don’t have much to spend on advertising for their venue and the acts they host. By posting about one of your favourite venues, or sharing a post the venue has published, you give them helpful exposure. - Donate to Save Our Venues
Save Our Venues is a crowdfunding campaign to help save struggling music venues across the entire country. You can chose to donate to a specific venue or just to the general cause. Donating just £20 will also net you a Save Our Venues shirt.
