The Grand, along with William Wolstenholme from BBC Introducing have hand-picked the very best emerging talent from Lancashire and Cumbria. 

Join us as we celebrate Independent Venue Week at one of the best medium sized venues in the north. While the super-sized arenas and global stars get all the press, grassroots music is doing the hard work, providing the next generation of artists.

The first act to be announced is…

Vacant Weekend

Vacant Weekend are an alt-pop trio from Cumbria, currently based in Manchester. The three friends met in year 7 at school and bound together immediately, finding comfort in jamming and performing music together. Vacant in its current layout was formed in 2018, taking inspiration from disco and motown as well as noughties indie-rock like Two Door Cinema Club and The Wombats. Now they’ve carved out their own niche that can loosely be described as funk inspired, groove focused, cathartic indie rock.

The band has enjoyed two very fun summers of festivals, with returning appearances at Kendal Calling, Bluedot and Solfest, as well as first time appearances at the picturesque Eskfest in Cumbria and Victorious festival in Portsmouth, and plan to get in front of as many new faces in 2024. Vacant brings with them 3 phenomenal session players to make up a 6-piece live band, pushing their onstage chemistry and musicality to the next level. The band landed places on Spotify editorial playlists ‘New Music Friday’ and ‘Fresh Finds UK/IE’ with ‘Do I Don’t You’ and off the back of this success played a four-date single-launch tour around the release of their single ‘My Addictions’.

More acts TBA – keep an eye on here and our socials.