SAVE THE RETRO BAR – CROWDFUNDER CAMPAIGN

CROWDFUNDER CAMPAIGN 

CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY: SAVE THE RETRO

In August, developers will demolish our premises. We cannot trade past July 2025. Despite this proposed scheme expecting to generate billions of pounds, we feel like an afterthought. The two sites offered by our landlords as alternatives were both wholly unsuitable. We have only been offered a small financial contribution, which will aid in winding down our business with staff redundancies. It is a fraction of the cost we face to move site, recover lost business and keep staff employed.

It feels wrong that we have essentially only been offered basic “business funeral costs” when we are still very much alive and ready to continue doing what we love.

We have the necessary equipment and a wonderful team of driven people ready to go. All we have requested from landlords throughout the past 12 months has been an alternative space to relocate to and continue. We have taken it upon ourselves to carry out this extensive research, and good progress is being made.

Throughout this process we’ve been led to believe that there would be a fair outcome presented where we didn’t face the total loss of our business. But our future has now been thrown into complete uncertainty. Our current reality is business extinguishment.

Retro Bar (an integral Grassroots Music Venue) should not be collateral loss in the wake of this development.

RETRO: WHERE DID COME IT FROM?

After promoting 1000s of live music events in Manchester for over 20 years we reached a place where we were able to acquire our own music venue where we could take greater risks on our programming with the support of bar revenue combined.

Seven years ago, I took over a historic music venue in the musically significant city of Manchester after a pub company who were the landlords at the time had changed the name & model of the space. They had removed all live music staging and production, leaving the space bare to act as merely a place to consume alcohol with no real goals other than to generate as much profit as possible for themselves; it did not go to plan and no one came.

Knowing the value of its cultural importance and the communities it originally served, my instinct when getting the keys to the venue was to return the space to its former identity as the Retro Bar. I invested time, all the money I had and a lot of energy into reinstalling the live production equipment and staging to make it operate as a music venue again. I quickly committed myself to learning the bar side of the trade after my previous experience was predominantly in concert promotion. It created a lot of stress but I believed it could be done and with a great lot of support from passionate individuals – we did it. All the time spent within many music venues nationwide had paid off and I reached a point where it felt like things were starting to make sense.

The place felt truly special and unique again. We created a team that I will be forever thankful to for their innate resilience; they all believed in the vision of the project & programme delivery.

WHAT ARE YOU SUPPORTING

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We plan to relocate our activities to another city centre Manchester venue, where we will continue to stage grassroots musicians. These startup costs are substantial, and the losses incurred as a result of the closure mean we can only do it with meaningful financial support. For perspective: from the setup of Retro, it took over two years to become viable.

We are currently searching extensively for alternative premises where another venue can be created.

Every supporter is valued. This is as much about demonstrating support for the venue as it is about raising money — whether that’s £1 or £100. Let’s show that Retro is here to stay and by being vocal and united, we can overcome these challenges.

Support this campaign and you’ll be showing that creative businesses stimulate cultural and economic growth, whilst protecting the future of live music.

Let’s Save The Retro!