“The cost of living crisis had a massive impact,” agreed Kathryn McShane, director of the Black Box in Belfast.
It becomes “harder to sell a £25 ticket when there are other costs to consider”, she explains, and the soaring cost of arena shows is eating up a lot of music fans’ “cultural spend for the year”.
In 2025, the 240-capacity venue staged shows by indie heroes like Gruff Rhys, King Creosote and Throwing Muses – as well as the last-ever show by US folk singer Peggy Seeger.
But McShane says the number of bands who can afford to cross the Irish Sea is slowly shrinking.
“Given our location, you can’t just jump in a van, you know, you need to book a flight or a boat to travel to our venue. But those costs are increasing to the point where, for a lot of artists, it’s no longer sustainable.”
To make up the shortfall, Black Box has started opening its doors during the daytime – hiring it out for corporate events, workshops, book readings and community groups.
“It’s definitely becoming trickier to keep everything ticking over,” said McShane, suggesting that larger concert venues should step into help their local affiliates.
“If we look at sport, for example, it’s kind of a given that large teams give back to their community, and I think that that’s something that would be extremely beneficial to the arts sector and the music sector, both regionally and nationally.”