An avid attendee of Newcastle's Cobalt Studios has just completed a rather unique fundraiser for the North East venue, in effort to raise awareness of the crisis faced within grassroots music: he's travelled 148 miles from his native Manchester to his university city Newcastle by children's bike.
Taking the scenic route through rural Yorkshire, 21-year-old Ben Reid reached Cobalt Studios - a non-profit, family-run venue hosting live music, educational events and club nights - on Saturday August 3, four days after setting off.
Regular updates were shared by Reid throughout on the venue's Instagram in addition to explainers detailing the significance of grassroots spaces, in the wake of what the Music Venues Trust reported as their "most challenging year".
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”Running Cobalt has never been particularly easy but currently year on year its gets harder and harder," explains Kate Hodgkinson, founder and creative director of Cobalt Studios. "The current cost of living crisis combined with the impact of covid and the rising cost of everything else is just a daily challenge, and we are constantly extremely close to tumbling over into not being able to do this anymore. Myself and my co-director are unable to take a salary so we work day jobs before Cobalt responsibilities and it all often feels very untenable.
"Despite the challenges we passionately believe that our direct community and the wider music and arts community really benefit from spaces like this; they bring people together, they cater for all ages, they often tackle social isolation, promote diversity, inclusion and belonging. Many small venues, Cobalt included, also offer education opportunities – as well as being a bedrock for the music industry, for many they are also places of positive mental health, learning and connection. Capitalism leaves no room for these projects and we need to fight hard to protect them across the UK."
“I'm doing this for Cobalt because it's given me a lot in the last three years, and I wanted other people who come to uni here in the future to be able to have a chance to experience the same things that I have," explains Ben. "When I got wind of how delicate the finances were I wanted to help, this place has got too much to offer culturally for it to be lost to the cost of living crisis or the crisis of all the venues closing down. I wanted to do a fundraiser that’s crazy enough that people read about and think 'woah fair enough, here’s a fiver", even if they aren't involved with Cobalt. I think that it’s a massive challenge – anybody could do it on a normal bike but on a kid's bike it's hard!"
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The crowdfunder is still open for any last-minute donations, with proceeds going entirely to Cobalt Studios in order to help fund their programme and stay open. You can check it out (and find out more) here.
Niamh Ingram is Mixmag's Weekend Editor, follow her on Instagram
