Music Venue Trust has published its 2025 Annual Report, and this year’s data includes a genuinely important development for Northern Ireland: for the first time, there is sufficient, NI-specific evidence to properly represent grassroots music venues here within the UK-wide statistics.

With financial support from Belfast City Council, Music Venue Trust invested resources in a Northern Ireland Development Project during 2025. The purpose was straightforward: to build the local network, improve representation of grassroots music venues across the nation, and collect consistent data that could be used for advocacy. That capacity-building work means Northern Ireland is no longer a footnote in UK reporting. It has a clearer statistical profile, and the sector now has specific figures that can be used when making the case for policy support, funding, and protection.

The topline numbers are stark in the best way. In 2025, 460,200 people attended 3,705 grassroots music shows in Northern Ireland. Those events contributed £11,853,844 to the economy, close to £12 million generated through grassroots live music activity.

The report also underlines the day-to-day reality beneath those headlines. Northern Ireland’s grassroots venues supported 525 jobs in 2025, down from 667 the year before. A significant proportion of venues operate on a not-for-profit basis, and the sector continues to subsidise live music: across Northern Ireland, venues collectively carried a net cost of £1,626,645 in order to put on live music.

Taken together, the message is clear. Grassroots venues deliver tangible cultural and economic value at scale, but they remain structurally exposed and are often absorbing costs that the wider ecosystem benefits from. Better NI-specific data is both an administrative win and a tool: it gives the sector a firmer footing in conversations around public investment, licensing, planning, late-night infrastructure and the wider conditions that allow local scenes to grow.

Music Venue Trust’s report includes a detailed Northern Ireland deep-dive and the existence of that section alone signals progress: NI’s grassroots venues are being counted properly and the evidence is now there to argue for what the sector needs to remain sustainable.

Read the full report here.