Bradford Music Scene
Not a single night — a scene. Built to connect artists, venues, promoters and audiences, and to make the whole thing visible.
Role
Founder & Creative Director
Since
2021 — present
Output
Editorial, design, live events
City
Bradford, UK
The Idea
Bradford Music Scene was founded in 2021 to support the city's music ecology. The aim was never to programme one event: it was to create a scene and then connect it — artists, venues, audiences and promoters — and give it a visible public face through design and editorial.
- Create the scene, then connect it: artists, venues, promoters, audiences.
- Grow visibility for what was already happening in the city.
- Raise Bradford's cultural profile beyond its borders.
- Promote artists into real opportunities and real fees.
What we built
Gig Guides & Editorial
The monthly gig guide is the backbone — designed, typeset and published every month, 47 editions to date. Alongside it sits the seasonal Top 8 Artists to Watch: a curated print and digital guide sent to BBC Introducing, local media and venues, giving artists a direct route from bedroom recordings to bookings.
Every issue is art-directed in-house — layout, typography, photography and the poster language that carries across posters, socials and, later, the BMS Live product.
The BMS Awards
Artists aspire to the Brits or the Grammys. The inaugural BMS Awards brought that feeling to grassroots artists, promoters and venues — recognition for work that usually goes unrecorded, in a room full of the people who do it.
It landed: community recognition, positive press and genuine industry visibility, and a sense of shared achievement that carried into the next year's programming.
Why an awards night
Recognition is cheap to give and disproportionately effective. It keeps people in a scene, gives press a reason to write, and gives the city a visible, dated moment to point at.
Music in Unusual Places
“Over 700 people saw the band while they were there and they loved it.”
Telegraph & Argus — Bradford Interchange takeover
Stations, markets and shopping streets instead of back rooms — putting grassroots artists in front of audiences who weren't looking for a gig, and giving the city centre a soundtrack it could point to.
Reach & Outcomes
Darley St Market opening
10k footfall
Interchange takeover
700+ saw one band
Monthly gig lists
47 published
Programmes
Awards · Top 8 · Women in Music
Five years on, the model built in Bradford — platform, event series, awards show, venue forum and media channel — is designed to be replicated in another city. The next chapter of it is BMS Live, the digital product that took the scene online.
Read the BMS Live case study →Want the full story?
Happy to talk through the editorial design, event programming or the identity work behind Bradford Music Scene.