Nottingham’s much-loved music venue The Bodega is in the running to win the national grassroots venue of the year in the Music Week awards. Now it’s over to the public who will decide the winner from the 10 finalists shortlisted for the prestigious award with voting open until 5pm, 10 March. Vote online here!
Music Venue Trust is once again supporting the publicly voted Grassroots Venue: Spirit Of The Scene category – it follows a huge year for the sector with multiple calls to support the foundations of the UK’s music eco-system. The nod for The Bodega comes after the 220 cap venue marked 25 years playing host to the most exciting up-and-coming new artists around, from rising local talent to nationally and internationally touring newcomers.
As well as hosting intimate gigs for arena-sized artists, The Bodega is arguably the most important venue in Nottingham for fresh talent acting as a stepping stone for many local artists on the way up. At the time of the 25th celebrations last November, Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods, said: “The Bodega is an important part of Nottingham’s creative ecosystem. Nottingham has always had a rich musical culture, but so many of the grassroots venues I played coming up are now closed. The Bodega is the only one left at that level and it’s important that it remains open to keep Nottingham on the musical map.”
DHP Family is also up for Festival of the Year with its Derbyshire based camping festival Bearded Theory running against the likes of Latitude, Wireless, Reading and Leeds and BST Hyde Park. This year’s line up is led by Iggy Pop, Manic Street Preachers, The Sisters of Mercy, Leftfield, Yard Act, The Mary Wallopers, Ash, CMAT, Nova Twins, Fat Dog and many more. In 2024, they won Line Up of The Year at UK Festival Awards, and this year’s edition is on course to be even better. Fast-rising Nottingham band Divorce are also on the bill – and NME cover stars this month – following their four night sold out residency at The Bodega last October, connecting the dots between DHP Family’s live output.
The final award sees Nottingham based DHP Family up for Live Music Promoter, a title they won in 2019, and have made the final shortlist on two more occasions. The Music Week Awards recognises work across a broad spectrum of the music industry from record labels and music publishers to live and radio. Each year, the prestigious awards are peer-voted and judged by an independent panel of specialist judges. The winners will be revealed at a glitzy ceremony on May 8.
