Following on from music festival and conference Sound City Ipswich, The Smokehouse will be hosting the likes of TOY, Girl Ray, Warmduscher, W. H. Lung, Penelope Isles and Verb T as part of Independent Venue Week, between 27th January and 2nd February. Based in Ipswich’s growing South Street Studios community hub, The Smokehouse is one of the Suffolk coast’s main destinations for independent live music regionally and touring artists. Smokehouse founder Joe Bailey will also be appearing at the Independent Venue Week keynote with Huw Stephens.

Independent Venue Week celebrates music venues and the people who work tirelessly to run them across a seven day marathon of artists on the rise. As an intimate 88 capacity venue, The Smokehouse will be giving audiences the opportunity to see touring bands in a more personal setting. Independent Venue Week’s initiative is to highlight not only the work that music venues do for emerging artists but also the service they provide to local communities as creative hubs for learning and the development of regional culture. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England, Wales and Creative Scotland in the UK as well as the wider music industry and brands globally, Independent Venue Week brings together these venues along with breaking and established artists, promoters, labels, media and tastemakers to create a nationwide series of gigs.

See The Smokehouse website for further details.