It’s always a sad day when a venue closes, but Stokes Croft was hit hard when The Crofters’ Rights shut suddenly last summer. The legendary Bristol venue has been a vital cog in the city’s live music scene since 2000—and has hosted everyone from the city’s very own Batu and IDLES to Arctic Monkeys and Ed Sheeran over the years.
With an intimate 110-capacity live room and 250-capacity club space, it has given many opportunities to up-and-coming artists that the UK’s music scene thrives on. But don’t worry, The Croft (returning to its former name) will be back very soon. It was revealed as one of seven UK venues set to be saved by Music Venue Properties’ ‘Own Our Venues’ initiative in May.
How is The Croft being saved?
The aim is to bring The Croft “into permanent community ownership.” That’s why a fundraiser has been launched where you can buy community shares in the Charitable Community Benefit Society from just £100 (£50 for under 25s). This will effectively change how the grassroots music venue is owned.
With a minimum £1,000,000 target from Community Shares, a further £2,000,000 will also be raised from other sources (although it’s still some way off hitting that target). Part of the team bringing The Croft back to Bristol are World Famous Dive Bars (Mother’s Ruin, The Crown, Colosseum) and the Exchange.
“The team at World Famous Dive Bars are made up of musicians, promoters and music fans, and we all see that a huge hole has been left in the Bristol grassroots music ecosystem since the Crofters Rights closed in August 2024,” said Marc Griffiths. “We are honoured to be part of the effort to bring back this vital, and quite frankly legendary, GMV through community ownership.”
When is The Croft reopening?
There’s still not enough money raised to buy the building outright—the fundraiser ends on July 31—a short term deal with the current landlord means The Croft can reopen ahead of plan. World Famous Dive Bars have confirmed an opening date of September 12. But they still encourage everyone to get involved with owning a piece of this legendary venue.
To check out the fundraiser, you can head here.