A new nightclub and music venue is set to open in Manchester later this year. Find more details below.
- READ MORE: Report shows “disaster” facing grassroots music venues: “The big companies and arenas are now going to have to answer for this”
Amber’s, a 1000-capacity music venue on Oxford Road in Manchester, will open its doors on December 5. They’ll offer live music and club events across two rooms at an “affordable price point”.
To celebrate the opening night, the venue is holding a launch event with an unannounced line-up featuring “some of the world’s best DJs alongside up-and-coming selectors and world-class residents,” per a press release.
This will mirror their upcoming weekly ‘Saturdays at Amber’s’, which will feature unannounced artists only revealed post-event, with tickets priced at £5. For events in December, tickets will go on sale next Friday (November 1) at 10am. You can sign up to pre-sale access via their website, which will allow you to buy tickets 24 hours in advance.
In a statement, a representative from the venue said: “At Amber’s we want the music, sound and vibe to be the reason you come back. We aim to bring some of the best artists in the world to our club, to play at an affordable price point, with the focus on brilliant music and sound, every single week.”
Amber’s opening comes at a time of crisis for UK venues and follows the recent news that North West England suffered the worst music venue closures in the country last year. “We’re totally aware of the climate at the moment when it comes to nightclubs and venues in trouble,” says Amber’s co-founder Hutch. “So we aim to foster an environment where promoters, artists and attendees can thrive and grow together.”
In December, Mark Davyd, the CEO of Music Venue Trust, told NME that 2023 had been the worst year for venue closures. He said: “It’s been the worst year ever for venue closures,” he said. “The rise of costs and energy is extraordinary and nobody seems to care, the rise in rents is just astonishing with landlords trying to make money back they might have lost during COVID by rapidly increasing rents beyond the possibility of what can be paid.”
And an MVT report from January echoed his comments, finding that grassroots venues are facing a “disaster”. This is despite, as the Trust’s COO, Beverley Whitrick, telling the House of Commons, “23.6million people visited a grassroots music venue in the UK in 2023, which is an increase on the previous year. Sometimes people say to us when they ask about closures, ‘Is it that people are not interested in going anymore?’ Of course, that’s not the case at all.
