Hodgkinson adds she does not believe Newcastle’s scene is expanding, but there has simply been an increase in the number of events being officially listed.
And it is a sentiment shared by Sam Booth and Jon Cornbill, from the Lubber Fiend, another small venue which opened in 2022 as a DIY grassroots music venue which also hosts club nights.
“I think there is a strong scene in Newcastle, there are lots of people doing lots of good things, but we’re all existing in quite a difficult environment,” Booth says.
“We still have a lot of stuff going on in this city, but I think it paints a different picture when you start to say things like outpacing London, it makes us sound like we’ve got this thriving money scene.
“But everyone’s broke, the parties are really difficult to put on, the costs of putting on parties are rising.”
Head of music research and audiences strategies at NTIA Rufy Ghazi says the 72% growth figure for Newcastle comes from an analysis of Resident Advisor event listing data.
She adds the listings are used because “they provide a consistent, like-for-like basis for comparing city-level activity over time” and it is a “meaningful signal of scene momentum and decentralisation away from London”.
“It doesn’t measure financial health and the report is clear on that distinction,” Ghazi says.
“So the venues struggling financially while listings grow isn’t a contradiction in the data, it’s actually one of the report’s core tensions.
“More events don’t automatically mean more viable venues.”