“It’s about those bands who need merch income to survive”: The Charlatans' Tim Burgess fronts a new Manchester festival that allows bands to keep all their merch profits

Within the current financial dynamics of the grassroots music world, striving to make any kind of financial return from your output as an artist can seem like a far-off aim. However, in Manchester, a new festival is making a point of prioritising direct-to-fan sales of merchandise, with no cut taken from any participating venues.

The festival, dubbed Merch Market, aims to disrupt the current status quo - whereby venues take a percentage fee from all merchandise sold on their premises - and establish a more ethical, way forward for burgeoning artists to earn some return from their work.

Headlined - and co-spearheaded - by The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess, this festival is set to take place on Sunday May 25th and will span numerous key circuit venues in Manchester - Gorilla, O2 Ritz and Dog Bowl.

The initiative will primarily orbit merch stalls where artists can sell their records, clothing and other merchandise without the venues taking any commission from sales.

Throughout the day, live performances and DJ sets will keep the energy flowing, while panel discussions will interrogate many key issues that music-makers experience in the industry today.

Burgess - who has made addressing the huge proportion of revenue that venues take from artists’ merch a particular focus - stated that, “The Merch Market is a chance for bands and solo artists to dig out those forgotten gems from storage, whip up some exclusive new designs, and connect directly with their fans.” To that end, Tim himself will have a stall, where he intends to sell Charlatans curios, including five ‘Sproston Green’ sports bags ahead of their availability to order.

“There’s no stall fee, no commission, just a celebration of the creativity that makes our music scene so special,” Burgess stated. “100 per cent of the income can be kept by the bands.”

Tim, who has previously ran the Vinyl Adventures record fair in Manchester back in 2021, has been a big advocate for restoring financial fairness when it comes to artists retaining their earnings.

His efforts led to over 400 venues across the UK pledge to transform into ‘100% venues’ - and not take any cuts from artists merch sales.

Back then, he tweeted that; “This isn’t about The Charlatans. It’s about those bands who need merch income to survive. Some places take 25 per cent. A quarter of the full selling price. Vinyl doesn’t even have that markup to begin with.”

At the upcoming event, a very cool partnership with Print Manchester, will enable music fans customise their clothing (and other merch-type) designs via on-the-spot merch printing.

Aside from Tim, the venue organisers state that attendees can expect a wealth of surprises, including giveaways of signed vinyl test pressings, relics from music history and the chance to win VIP tickets to the upcoming Kendall Calling festival in late July.

If you’re an artist or merch-maker interested in taking part, you can apply for a free stall by heading over to Help Us Help Bands.