‘Music venues are shutting all the time for new bands – so we’ve opened one up’
An alternative music festival has launched a new grassroots music venue to give new bands a place to play live.
Room 2, an 100-capacity venue based in Leeds, is opening on April 3.
It’s located inside The Key Club, a pre-existing 300 capacity venue in Leeds which is run by the founders of pop punk festival, Slam Dunk.
Originally, the room was used just for alternative club nights. But after Mia Jackson and Sav Bowskill, who both work at Slam Dunk Ltd, noticed a gap in the market for smaller, alternative venues in Leeds, they pitched the idea to convert it into a proper gig space.
For their launch party on April 3, the bands Different State, Lomens and Until Joy are performing and tickets are £5.50. Two further gigs are also booked in for April 10 and April 24.
The venue also offers sound equipment – known as backline – so that the younger bands can just show up with their instruments and play without having to spend thousands on extra kit.
Sav told Metro: ‘We decided to launch it because we want to support local artists who want to get into the alternative scene where opportunities are dying out, with venues closing and rising costs.
‘We also want to showcase marginalised genders and queer artists, giving those people a lift up and head start as well, because they’re important to the scene.’
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Mia added: ‘It’s a really difficult time to be in bands at the moment and we just wanted to make an active change in this.
‘An 100 capacity venue is perfective because it’s still intimate, but for a smaller band, 100 people is a lot of people.’
‘We’re trying to make the gigs as cheap as possible,’ Mia said. ‘The highest price at the moment we have is £7 for a four-band bill.’
Earlier this year, Industry body Music Venue Trust published its annual report for 2025, which highlighted that, despite contributing more than half a billion pounds to the UK economy, 30 grassroots music venues have permanently closed over the past year with 6,000 (19.8%) roles cut – the sharpest drop since the trust began collecting annual data.
Last year, the government published the Creative Industries Sector Plan, which outlined investment worth £30 million to go towards grassroots spots across the country and mentoring opportunities for emerging talent.
But MVT has cited the UK Government’s changes to national insurance and business rates as a factor that has caused many venues to struggle over the past year and proposed plans to help inject more money and support into the sector.
Greg Counsell, lead singer from the band The Maple State, told Metro it was ‘impossible’ for him to find a suitable venue for his band’s 20th anniversary last year.
‘It was such hard work trying to find a venue available on the dates we were intending to play,’ he said. ‘The number of people I called and they’d just say “This place has gone, that place has gone.” It was devastating. I feel like we’re fishing in an ever-decreasing pond.’
Greg added that he thought the Room 2 venture was ‘fantastic.’
‘100 capacity is exactly what I wanted last year. I wanted to get 100 people in a room and just play to them. That’s the most punk rock size for a room,’ he added.
Ben Ray, Director of Slam Dunk Ltd, added: ‘We have created a space within our existing venue to make a smaller performance space to give local bands more opportunities for their first gigs and help them build their fan base.
‘Hopefully they’ll then go onto much bigger things, and could one day play at Slam Dunk.’
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