{"id":2199829,"date":"2025-12-15T15:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2199829"},"modified":"2025-12-15T15:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:49:08","slug":"arts-council-funding-ensures-live-music-events-in-bedford-are-accessible-to-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/arts-council-funding-ensures-live-music-events-in-bedford-are-accessible-to-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Arts Council funding ensures live music events in Bedford are accessible to all\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Another sold out show at Esquires. Image: Club Biscuit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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Thanks to a grant from Arts Council England, young people and those struggling financially will be able to experience live music events at Bedford Esquires from as little as a fiver.<\/p>\n

Rick Skilbeck, who promotes events at the award-winning music venue as Club Biscuit, has received funding from the Supporting Grassroots Music fund to subsidise reduced-price tickets to all of their shows. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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The initiative means music lovers who are struggling with increases in the cost of living can pick up a ticket to see a touring act for as little as \u00a35, without the need to provide evidence of their income.<\/p>\n

These reduced-price tickets, which will be described as \u2018Art is for Everyone\u2019, are also available to anyone under the age of 25, regardless of their financial situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cMyself and fellow promoter Ian \u2018Milky\u2019 Kemp successfully applied for a grant from Arts Council England two years ago during the height of the cost of living crisis, and this initiative has allowed people to see some incredible shows at Esquires by the likes of Teenage Fanclub, The Horrors, Big Special and Throwing Muses for less than the price of a pint of beer,\u201d said Rick.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal was to make our events accessible to everyone, no matter what their financial situation was.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have received some brilliant feedback about the initiative over the past 24 months and the difference it has made to people, so I\u2019m incredibly grateful to Arts Council England for their ongoing support and this further award, which will allow it to continue for another two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspiring the next generation<\/h2>\n

To encourage even more people to get out and see live music, Rick and Milky have expanded the eligibility criteria to now include anyone under the age of 25, regardless of their financial situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrassroots music venues like Esquires were a cultural lifeline for me when I was 18, and if we don\u2019t encourage youngsters to visit them now, it is difficult to see where the next generation of gig goers, promoters and venue operators is going to come from,\u201d explained Rick.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese reduced price tickets could now allow someone to bring their son, daughter, niece or nephew to the venue at little financial cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forthcoming gigs with an allocation of Art is for Everyone tickets include The Moonlandingz, Man\/Woman\/Chainsaw, Whitelands, The Cords and more.<\/p>\n

You can find out more and purchase subsidised tickets at the Esquires website here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.bedfordindependent.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another sold out show at Esquires. Image: Club Biscuit Thanks to a grant from Arts Council England, young people and those struggling financially will be able to experience live music events at Bedford Esquires from as little as a fiver. Rick Skilbeck, who promotes events at the award-winning music venue as Club Biscuit, has received […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2199830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[424637,424638,424639,424640,424641,424642,424643],"class_list":["post-2199829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-art-is-for-everyone","tag-arts-council-england","tag-bedford-esquires","tag-club-biscuit","tag-good-news","tag-ian-milky-kemp","tag-rick-skilbeck"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Arts-Council-funding-ensures-live-music-events-in-Bedford-are.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2199829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2199831,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199829\/revisions\/2199831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2199830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2199829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2199829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2199829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}