Esquire’s Gareth Barber says: “We are absolutely thrilled to announce that we have secured a project grant made specifically available to support Grassroots Live Music venues from Arts Council England.
“Our application was for funding to improve the quality of our audience experience by installing air conditioning on our main stage, which we will now aim to put into place as soon as possible. As any of you that have experienced busy events here, it can certainly get hot!
“We are really excited to have been supported by this grant. Air conditioning was always a very expensive, seemingly unobtainable essential to put in place when taking over the venue 4 years ago. As the venue gets busier, some shows were simply uncomfortable and to be able to improve your experience at Esquires even further makes us all happy inside.
“We just want to say a huge thank you to Mark Davyd and the whole team at Music Venue Trust as well as our local ACE rep for guiding us through the process and helping us achieve this outcome, we simply wouldn’t have been able to do it without them. As Mark comments below…”
“Bedford Esquires is one of the most iconic venues in the country and has played host to literally hundreds of acts that went on to conquer festival stages across the world. Music Venue Trust is absolutely delighted that venue like Esquires, that are so vital to grassroots artists in building their careers, are getting the support they need from Arts Council England to make real improvements to the venue.”
