Sub Focus has announced that £1 from every ticket sold to his huge upcoming UK shows will be donated to Save Our Scene and the grassroots levy.
The DJ and producer is set to bring his acclaimed immersive live production Circular Sound to the UK again, following on from a sold-out date at London’s Alexandra Palace last year, as well as shows in Los Angeles, Australia and New Zealand.
The production also made him the first drum and bass artist to headline Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre, and earlier this month he confirmed his biggest headline shows to date.
Both new dates take place in the UK next spring, and include a stop at The O2 in London on Friday March 26 and at Manchester’s Co-Op Live on Saturday March 27. This will be the first time the show has been brought to arenas, and will feature personally-curated widescreen visuals and production at both dates. Tickets are on sale now.
Now, Sub Focus – real name Nicolaas Douwe Douwma – has confirmed that he will be pledging £1 per ticket sale to help support grassroots venues.
“It’s never been more important to support small venues,” he shared. “They are an incubator for new talent and have played a massive part in the careers of most musicians I know.”
He continued: “Now I’m lucky enough to have the opportunity to help support the grassroots venues I came up with, by drawing attention to initiatives like this. Save Our Scene have my full support in the action they are taking to help reverse this trend of venues closing.”
Sub Focus’ UK 2027 live dates are:
MARCH
26 – The O2, London
27 – Co-op Live, Manchester
The idea of a £1 ticket levy has gained steam in recent years, and is designed to help support grassroots artists and local music venues by having shows at arena and stadium levels donate back.
The model – already in use in several countries across Europe, similar to the one seen in the Premier League of football – was given the government’s backing back in 2024, but criticism still surrounds how larger shows in the UK have brought in record profits with many not paying into the system. Already, there have been findings that the grassroots sector subsidised live music by £76.6million in 2025, while recent larger shows at arena and stadium level saw UK live music contribute a record-breaking £8billion to the economy.
The push to give back to grassroots spaces comes at a vital time for the UK live music industry, as the loss of venues in regional areas across the UK has already caused what many think of as “the complete collapse of touring” in recent years.
Last year’s MVT report showed that the UK was losing one music venue every fortnight and, while 2025 saw the rate of venue decline slow to its lowest point since 2018, urgent action is still needed, especially due to recent job losses and a fundamental threat to the live music talent pipeline.
The idea of a levy was given backing by the UK government in 2024, and the LIVE Trust levy was launched in January 2025 – committed to sharing the money among artists, managers and promoters, to ensure that the entire grassroots ecosystem benefits in this country. Artists who have used their huge tours to donate to the Live Trust levy so far include Harry Styles, Coldplay, Sam Fender, Katy Perry, Pulp and Mumford & Sons.
Last year, London’s Royal Albert Hall became the first 5,000+ capacity venue to commit to the £1 ticket levy too, a decision that will raise an estimated £300,000 per year for the LIVE Trust.
As well as the Live Trust, other efforts to protect the UK grassroots music sector have come from Save Our Scene (SOS), which was founded during the COVID-19 pandemic to help provide support for independent musicians. Since it launched in 2020, SOS has teamed up with Music Venue Trust to develop the Lifeline Fund, which aims to ease the financial pressure on local venues. Money raised from the levy on Sub Focus’ tour will also benefit the organisation.
The efforts from the artist also comes following news that over 1.5million young people in the UK have abandoned ambitions to perform live music, largely due to the decline of small venues. Those figures come as the UK has lost 11,000 venues since 2019 – roughly four-to-five every day. If this rate continues, it will mean another 2,000 venues could close by 2030.
