BBC Music Introducing has added three more locations to its flagship live music festival – BBC Introducing Live – and announced a raft of future initiatives, collaborations and plans to support young, unsigned artists across the UK.

With the highly anticipated BBC Introducing Live festival around the corner and an exciting line-up of programmes in the pipeline – Glasgow, Leeds and Belfast have been added to the list of locations putting on events to empower young, aspiring musicians.

BBC Introducing Live is taking place from Saturday 7 – Saturday 14 October across 6 vibrant locations, with details about Glasgow, Leeds and Belfast as follows:

BBC Introducing Live at Tenement Trail, Glasgow

Saturday 7 October

Tenement Trail is Scotland’s festival for music discovery – the one-day, multi-venue event takes place on Saturday 7th October and this year BBC Introducing in Scotland takes over the iconic Barrowland 2 venue.

BBC Introducing in Scotland presenters Phoebe I-H and Shereen Cutkelvin will host the stage and record performances from up-and-coming artists across the day.

Acts confirmed to perform include Former Champ, Jacob Alon, Kayla Grace, Lacuna, Linzi Clark, Lizzie Reid and Walt Disco.

BBC Introducing Live at Live At Leeds

Saturday 14 October

BBC Introducing Live will be taking over the Oporto venue at Live At Leeds from 12-8pm on Saturday 14 October, showcasing the best talent from the West Yorkshire region. Acts confirmed to perform include Lime Garden, Jessica Winter, Bedroom High Club, Home Counties, Chalk, Ellie Bleach, Venus Grrrls, Lucky Iris and Mother Said.

Live at Leeds has become one of the country’s most recognisable and important festivals dedicated to championing new artists. An important stop on the careers of thousands of musicians, in its history the festival has notably hosted early performances from the likes of Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, The 1975, George Ezra and countless others.

BBC Introducing Live at Belfast International Arts Festival

Friday 13 October

Making its Northern Ireland debut, BBC Introducing Live takes over The Limelight at Belfast International Arts Festival with performances from rising stars Jordan Adetunji, Lucy Gaffney, Reevah, and Cbakl on Friday 13 October. The event will also include an extra special performance by Snow Patrol.

Belfast International Arts Festival will run from 12 October – 5 November 2023 with a new season of contemporary arts and culture in over 30 venues across the city and featuring the best international and homegrown artists in theatre, dance, music, visual arts, literature and film.

Additional details added to London and Manchester locations:

BBC Introducing Live have also added more details to the events taking place across London and Manchester.

BBC Introducing Live with Roundhouse Rising Festival in London have added live performances from the likes of Nnenna, Tia Gordon, Valencia Grace, Amber T, and BaggE as well as the roundhouses’ own ‘apply to play’ artists Aicha Therese, automan, Khalil Madovi, ELLIE HARRIS, PHOEBE AXA, Harvey Causon, and Asriel set to perform with the Roundhouse Music Collective and Poppy Daniels rounding out the night.

BBC Introducing Live at Beyond the Music festival in Manchester have added a panel discussion which will look at the diminishing opportunities to break traditionally into the music industry and how the industry can create more opportunities to break bands and artists in 2023.

BBC Introducing Live will also be at the iconic Band on the Wall venue in Manchester with performances from Lili Caseley, Maruja, Jasmine Jethwa, GIRLBAND, Prido, Tommy Villiers, and Luke Royalty confirmed.

Finally, BBC Introducing Live have added their famous ‘feedback centres’ to the programme in Manchester, providing constructive feedback on demos and work in progress projects, empowering young creatives to refine and elevate their craft.

BBC Introducing New Initiatives and Collaborations

BBC Introducing have also unveiled a raft of new initiatives and collaborations designed to empower and support young, unsigned artists across the UK for the rest of the year and beyond.

New BBC Music Introducing Apprentices

As part of BBC Introducing’s work to champion new staffing talent similar to the way it champions new artists, 11 new apprentices have been welcomed to work on the BBC Introducing shows across the UK. The successful apprentices follow a highly competitive process with thousands of applications.

PRS for Music Collaboration

Working specifically with the BBC Music Introducing shows on BBC Asian Network and BBC Radio 1Xtra, the PRS foundation are collaborating with BBC Introducing to find 6 UK based artists to support through funding, live showcase opportunities, talent development and national radio play. The collaboration aims to fast track these 6 artists to export-readiness and address an underrepresentation of Asian and Black Music talent at international showcase events.

‘futuretense’ at The Southbank Centre in collaboration with BBC Introducing

BBC Introducing and The Southbank Centre return with its free gig series futuretense, featuring performances from some of London’s most exciting underground and emerging artists, as well as those from further afield. The re-launch of futuretense is part of the Southbank Centre’s ongoing commitment to support and nurture new talent working in contemporary music whilst providing a space for music lovers to come together and celebrate creativity at zero cost.

Dates for the first quarter of free gigs in 2024 are as follows:
Thurs 18 Jan
Thurs 22 Feb
Thurs 29 Feb
Thurs 7 March
Thurs 28 March

New sessions at BBC Wales

Working with BBC Radio Wales, BBC Horizons and BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Introducing has also announced that it will create a ‘sessions hub’ inviting unsigned artists to record in the state of the art Central Square studios, for a host of Welsh shows across BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru.

About BBC Music Introducing

BBC Music Introducing supports unsigned, undiscovered and under the radar music across the UK. There are more than 1,000,000 tracks uploaded to the BBC Music Introducing website and over 300,000 artists registered.

Introducing provides a platform to propel new acts from their local music scenes and onto the national stage through Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2, 6 Music, the Asian Network and Radio 3.

It gives up-and-coming artists broadcast opportunities on BBC radio, television and online alongside the chance to perform at major festivals and showcases. Big name artists including Ed Sheeran, Florence + the Machine, Little Simz, Celeste, Sam Fender, Aitch, and Chvrches all received BBC Music Introducing support at the start of their careers. Recent BBC Introducing success stories include Raye, Lewis Capaldi and The Lottery Winners, who have all achieved UK No 1 albums in 2023 so far.

In 2023 alone, BBC Introducing has helped over 200 artists record their own Maida Vale sessions or perform live at national events including Glastonbury, Latitude, Creamfields, Reading and Leeds, The Great Escape (which this year included the first ever BBC Asian network focused showcase), SXSW in Texas, BBC Radio 1 Dance Weekend in Ibiza, BBC 6Music festival, and The Hundred with BBC Sport.

In June of this year BBC Introducing also connected with BBC Football to give an up and coming, female artist that embodied the energy and spirit of the Women’s World Cup the opportunity to feature on the BBC Match of the Day’s official soundtrack. All BBC Introducing teams sent their strongest female talent to be considered for the opportunity. Pixey, supported by BBC Introducing in Merseyside was selected with her track ‘Just Move’.

You can hear BBC Introducing artists nationally across BBC Networks including:

BBC Radio 1

Introducing on Radio 1 with Jess Iszatt
Introducing Dance on Radio 1 with Jaguar
Introducing Rock on Radio 1 with Alyx Holcombe

BBC 6Music

Introducing Mixtape with Tom Robinson

Over the next month Tom will also be handing over the reins to some of the Introducing presenters from across the UK:

9 Oct – Abbie McCarthy with an Introducing Live special
6 Nov – Emma Linton (Cumbria) – last show that month
13 Nov – Dan Pascoe (Devon & Cornwall)
20 Nov – Ferne Buckley (Solent)
27 Nov –Jericho Keys (York & Humberside)
4 Dec – Kerrie Cosh (Northampton)