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EAST STAFFORDSHIRE BOROUGH COUNCIL PILOT > BUILD PHASE PROJECT EVALUATION

MUSIC-LED GRASSROOTS REGENERATION IN ACTION

November 2025

WHAT DID WE SET OUT TO ACHIEVE? At the start of 2025, East Staffordshire Borough Council (ESBC), working in partnership with Sonic Boom Music CIC and supported by Future Yard CIC, committed to a two year programme of work, seeking to UTILISE MUSIC AS A TRANSFORMATIONAL OPPORTUNITY IN THE REGENERATION & PLACEMAKING VISION FOR BURTON UPON TRENT. To support this project mission, two strategic goals were identified, seeking to reinforce established council priorities with a particular focus on Placemaking, Economic Development, Regeneration, Tourism, Town Centre Development, Employment & Job Creation, Skills & Learning, Innovation & Community Cohesion, along with Culture.

These strategic goals are; Strategic Goal 1 - Establish a permanent, non-profit, Community Music Venue, in Burton upon Trent. Strategic Goal 2 - Create local capacity, knowhow and partnerships to deliver large scale live music events in Burton upon Trent’s regenerated, town centre assets (High Street Project & Market Place). To support these Strategic Goals, a number of stated objectives for the coming years were outlined, with the successful delivery of Sonic Boom Festival being a key objective for 2025. Specifically, this objective committed to; • Build on the success of Sonic Boom Festival 2024, delivering Sonic Boom Festival 2025 as a large-scale, free-to-access stage in Burton upon Trent town centre during the day, followed by a series of evening concerts on a wristband model, encouraging audiences to discover venues across the town. • ESBC to deliver site, technical, logistics and marketing support for the Main Stage festival. • Sonic Boom Music CIC to curate, book and contract live talent for Main Stage and deliver a programme of wristbanded events across the Town Centre.

• Continue the pilot development of training programmes with the 2025 festival as a key activation point, stimulating the growth of further training capacity. • Sonic Boom Festival to be used to develop relationships within the music sector and continue to explore potential permanent venue locations, alongside the strategic organisational development of Sonic Boom Music CIC. Sonic Boom Festival sought to build on the success of 2024’s edition - a project that saw ESBC nominated for a prestigious LGC Award, shortlisted in the ‘Public/Private Partnership’ category, recognising the Council’s strategic collaboration with Future Yard CIC and Sonic Boom Music CIC. The challenge was to push-on from 2024, an event which saw an audience of 6000 enjoy a free-to-access main stage in Burton’s Market Place, while boosting civic pride and providing hugely valuable media traction. 2024’s festival stimulated a total financial impact of £164,420.78, a ROI of x2.74 against the project investment. To meet this challenge, the festival footprint was expanded, with a festival food village incorporated adjacent to the main stage

Burton’s Market Place, alongside a second stage and full day of animation within the Market Hall. An expanded programme of aftershock events across the town centre was also added, incorporating key partnerships with stakeholders such as BBC Introducing.

The development of this partnership was central to ensuring the sustainability and growth of Burton’s emerging music ecosystem, anchoring the project as a vital part of the town’s wider regeneration vision and cultural development strategies.

Building on the partnership established with Arts Council England was also a key priority. Both in terms of realising the vision for Sonic Boom 2025, but also in terms of collaboration around longterm, holistic support for strategic cultural interventions in Burton upon Trent, and the vision for a permanent community music venue in our town.

Though underpinned by a standalone piece of organisational development work supported by Future Yard CIC, the delivery of the 2025 festival was to be a key milestone in the evolution of Sonic Boom Music CIC, as the organisation sought to prove itself a sustainable, community-driven organisation and a long term strategic partner for ESBC.

This phase also played a key role in the Burton upon Trent Place Brand and tourism strategies being driven by ESBC. The project aligned with broader Town Deal and regeneration priorities, helped to cement a new, music-led narrative for Burton, shaped and delivered by local people. The festival was to act as both a creative celebration and a developmental mechanism, mobilising the Burton Music Collective, supporting the development of Sonic Boom Music CIC, and establishing the foundations for future funding and commissioning relationships.

SONIC BOOM FESTIVAL - MARKET PLACE Sonic Boom Festival returned to Burton upon Trent for its second year on September 13th, 2025. Expanding on the previous year’s edition, the festival featured a showpiece, free-to-access main stage in Burton’s Market Place, a second performance space featuring grassroots local artists within the Market Hall, an expanded market offer and food traders, alongside a programme of Aftershock events running across Burton Town Centre which followed the main stage celebrations. The free town-centre stage in Burton’s Market Place drew 5,000 visitors, both local Burtonians and tourist audiences from further afield. Performances from international touring acts such as Everything Everything (twice Mercury Prize nominated), K.O.G (Thundercat collaborator fresh from Glastonbury), The Clause (ahead of their #1 UK Independent Album), Prima Queen and emerging artists Leah Wilcox, Better Joy and Joel Foster. For a second year, the main stage was hosted by BBC 6Music DJ and key emerging music tastemaker, Chris Hawkins. This enduring

partnership has been valuable from a brand building perspective, with Chris supporting the festival extensively on his national BBC 6Music radio show. This has also been a supporting factor in the developing relationship with BBCIntroducing - the national broadcaster’s core platform for celebrating and supporting emerging new music. For 2026, Sonic Boom enjoyed a partnership with BBCIntroducing, which saw support for the festival on local BBCIntroducing shows and channels in advance, plus a BBCIntroducing showcase at The Brewhouse, as part of the official festival programme. This alignment is powerful from an engagement and brand perspective, but also in its positioning; allowing us to celebrate The Brewhouse as a key anchor cultural destination in our town. The musical diversity of the line up, combination of local and national talent, and the celebration of a broad spectrum of venues and spaces across the town built on the successful format of Sonic Boom Festival in 2024. Again, celebrating the idea that Burton is a place where music happens was at the core of the festival concept and design.

25 BURTON UPON TRENT SATURDAY 13th SEPTEMBER NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL 50+ ACTS ACROSS TOWN

Click to view the H O ST & DJ

CHRIS HAWKINS B B C R A D I O 6 M U S I C

THE COLLEGE

BREWHOUSE

EIGHTY EIGHT MILES TOM A SMITH THE SLATES

LISSY TAYLOR

THE BUG CLUB SEB LOWE

FRENCH EXIT TAYLOR LIAM JACKSON

JOAN SMITH & THE JANE DOES

BCA STAGE

TOWN HALL

BURTON CARIBBEAN ASSOC.

OMEGA NEBULA JAYAHADADREAM BURTON BASS

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

TOWER BREWERY

FOOLS & SAGES EMILY ALICE

THE LEISURE SOCIETY RIDING THE LOW

CLT DRP

LOUD IN THE

LIBRARY

CHIEDU ORAKA RUBY J

REVIVALRY

GET TICKETS NOW

WWW.SONICBOOMFESTIVAL.CO.UK www.sonicboomfestival.co.uk

FESTIVAL WRAP UP

SONIC BOOM FESTIVAL - AFTERSHOCKS Following Everything Everything’s triumphant Market Place performance, the festival expanded further across Burton upon Trent, taking over venues across the town. Alongside BBCIntroducing’s showcase at The Brewhouse, key national promoter This Feeling presented a bill of emerging indie sounds from across the UK at Burton College. Further public sector assets were animated within the programme, with Burton Library hosting the fantastic Yorkshire rap artist Chiedu Oraka and Burton Town Hall celebrating local luminaries Riding The Low and The Leisure Society. Burton Caribbean Association played host to digital dub duo Omega Nebula, with Tower Brewery showcasing the alt-rock leaning of Sub Pop Record’s The Bug Club, Seb Lowe and CLT DRP. Alongside successfully realising the ambition to ensure 2025’s Aftershock programme reached further than in previous years, the successful mobilisation of the Burton Music Collective (BMC) in supporting the delivery of the programme was hugely positive. The original precursor to the festival, ensuring that BMC flourishes as a community-led collective, supporting the ambitions of Sonic Boom Music CIC, will be fundamental to both the CIC’s ongoing development and the future success of Sonic Boom Festival.

SONIC BOOM BRAND Sonic Boom continued to amplify brand awareness both in the lead-up to and throughout the festival. Through its partnership with Coopers Square, the brand was effectively embedded within high street culture, with a pop–up venue activation creating a strong local presence ahead of the event. This integration not only generated early engagement but also ensured a consistent and recognisable brand identity carried through from the first year’s festival. This preview activity, alongside a successful pre-festival marketing campaign and on-site activation, has been key to building brand awareness and establishing Sonic Boom Festival as a recognisable, trusted and high quality experience for audiences, artists and the music sector, further elevating the perception of Burton upon Trent both locally and nationally.

Burton upon Trent Place BRAND Sonic Boom Festival presented the perfect opportunity for ESBC to launch and bring to life a new visual identity and written narrative to represent Burton upon Trent. The new co-developed place brand, which celebrates the town’s rich heritage and culture is a strategic place making intervention to better position and market the town as a distinctive and desirable destination to live, work, study, visit and invest. The new place brand was launched with a ‘Burton-uponit all’ which was showcased prominently throughout the event, serving as a creative expression of the council’s commitment to enhancing cultural infrastructure and building community pride across the town.

Audience Responses During Sonic Boom 2025, and through ongoing engagement with the festival’s social media platforms, Sonic Boom Music CIC and ESBC once again undertook audience surveys utilising Arts Council England’s Impact and Insight Toolkit. This mirrored the successful evaluation methodology implemented during the festival’s inaugural year, allowing the organisation to build a consistent framework for measuring growth, community engagement, and impact over time. Audience members were asked to rate, on a scale of 1–5 (1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree), how far they agreed with the following statements: “Sonic Boom has made me feel proud of Burton upon Trent.” “I would come to more events like this.” “I’m now excited about Burton’s music future.” “The festival felt like it was for me and I felt safe.”

As in 2024, the key takeaways are incredibly encouraging; 89% of respondents said that Sonic Boom Festival made them feel proud of Burton upon Trent illustrating the power of events such as Sonic Boom Festival to support, stimulate and reinforce notions of civic pride and community cohesion. 97% of people said they would come to more events like this, which provides strong endorsement for a placemaking and strategic cultural direction rooted in creative programming. It also supports the ambition to have a permanent community music venue to deliver work of this nature 365 days a year. 90% agreed that, as a result of Sonic Boom Festival, they are excited about Burton’s future. Music and cultural programmes create meaning, boost engagement and foster hope, key aspects as we strive to shape compassionate, cohesive local communities. As in 2024, 95% of people attending felt safe and that the festival was for people like them. Ensuring local communities feel their town works for them, is inclusive, representative and relevant, are central motivators behind Sonic Boom. This project is a powerful initiative to demonstrate a safe and welcoming town centre.

THE 2025 AUDIENCE SURVEY RESULTS ARE IN… Sonic Boom has made me feel proud of Burton Upon Trent 9%

0.8%

I would come to more events like this 0.8%

I’m now excited about Burton’s music future

0.8%

7.3%

0.8%

The festival felt like it was for me and I felt safe

0.8%

4.1%

0.8%

10.6% 13.9% 22.9%

18% 71.3%

87.7%

strongly agree

agree

81.1%

68%

no opinion

disagree

strongly disagree

I used to live in Burton, Winshill to be a bit more precise, but coming back to Burton for events like this makes me incredibly proud to be from Burton.

To have such a huge band like Everything Everything play for free in Burton was just incredible.

Absolutely Brilliant for Burton on Trent and the surrounding areas. Events like this are amazing. What an event. People from all over coming together in our town.

Great diverse range of music with great venues. A Great family day out for everyone. Moshing in the library to Revivalry!! Thank you!

Credit to those with the vision to organise this brilliant event. Events like these change both people and places for the better. We were really impressed by the organisation. We loved the Clause but were really impressed with K.O.G who we’ve never seen before. The crowd were amazing too, great to see people enjoying the day. All the volunteers were very helpful.

Brought together families, communities, artists & showcased talent from the midlands & around the UK in a way that put Burton on the map for the whole world to see. How can that not make Burton people proud.

Great day out, worth the two-and-a-half hour drive in miserable weather. Well done to the organisers and everyone involved.

THE ARTIST PERSPECTIVE

Click to hear

@BETTERJOYMUSIC

@THECLAUSEUK

@KOGMUSICUK

BURTON MAIL

TRADITIONAL MEDIA As in 2024, Sonic Boom Festival enjoyed a hugely successful media presence this year, achieving coverage from print, online, and through radio. BBC Radio were hugely supportive, with numerous features across BBC 6Music, BBC Radio Derby, BBC Radio Nottingham and BBC Radio Leicester.

Music Venue Trust podcast

BBC nEWS

BURTON ECHO

Music Venue Trust’s influential sector podcast, The Last Safe Space, celebrated Sonic Boom, heralding the festival as one of the leading UK events of its kind. BBC News, Yahoo!, Burton Echo and a host of local and online titles ran features and news pieces, all of which can be found within a full communications report HERE, with highlights below:

BBC RADIO DERBY

ZAP! BANG!

SOCIAL MEDIA Sonic Boom Festival was hugely successful at engaging a targeted, regional music audience through activity on social media. This took place primarily across email, facebook and instagram, between May and September 2025, with key highlights of the campaign included here.

PARTNERS/ ADVOCATES Another defining strength of Sonic Boom Festival 2025 was its collaboration with key partners and respected industry leaders. Strategically, it was important that these partners were drawn from a national and international perspective, as we seek to grow and develop Burton upon Trent - and Sonic Boom - as a place and brand synonymous with new music; a place where music happens. From stage curation with This Feeling and BBCIntroducing to backline and technical support from Laney and British Drum Co., Sonic Boom continued to leverage meaningful partnerships that not only enhanced the quality and professionalism of the festival but also reflected the growing national recognition and respect for the Sonic Boom brand. In addition to its ongoing partnership with the Music Venue Trust, Sonic Boom Festival was featured in UK Music’s “Hometown Glory” report, an influential national report highlighting how investment in grassroots music supports economic growth. This report and the work of UK Music are hugely influential, engaging directly with UK Government on policy development. This inclusion further reinforced Sonic Boom’s role as an emerging national exemplar of music-led grassroots regeneration and its increasing visibility and credibility within the UK’s wider music industry landscape.

SONIC BOOM FESTIVAL POP-UP A vibrant hub for creativity, conversation, and community pride. Between summer and Christmas 2025, a space donated by Coopers Square Shopping Centre, became the Sonic Boom Pop-Up. What was a disused shopfront, became a testbed for new ideas, a showcase, a stage, a meeting point and a celebration of Burton’s growing music culture. Visitors could drop in to buy tickets and merch, catch live performances, signings and interviews, or simply chat with some of the team and volunteers about what Sonic Boom is all about. The pop-up buzzed with energy; from buskers and bands to curious shoppers discovering new local talent. With the stated, long-term strategic goal to establish a permanent, non-profit, Community Music Venue in Burton upon Trent, the project was a key opportunity to test ideas and develop the concepts trialed during Sonic Boom. It was important for Sonic Boom Music CIC and Burton Music Collective to work collaboratively, sharing ownership and prioritising community co-creation. This pop up was so well received that they were allowed to continue until Christmas.

Financial Impacts

IMPACTS We have broken project impacts down into Financial Impacts and Professional Opportunities. These impacts are largely in addition to the core aspirations detailed in our project scope at the outset of the project. Moreover, these impacts are key indicators around the fundamental viability of a permanent, community music venue in Burton, forming the indicative starting point for a business case and the scope to support a buoyant live music sector in the town.

Stage

This year, Sonic Boom responded to feedback from its festival survey by introducing a single ticket that granted access to all paid Aftershock events. This new system proved far more accessible and straightforward, giving attendees the freedom to choose which events to attend without worrying about additional financial pressures. Tickets were priced at £24, reflecting rates from comparable town- and city-based festivals. To ensure inclusivity, Sonic Boom also offered a low/no-income ticket priced at £10 for those who qualified. Although limited in number, this option was an important step toward fairness and accessibility, aligning with the festival’s commitment to a community-first approach and support for those facing financial challenges. In total, 606 full-price tickets and 82 subsidised tickets were sold, generating £15,364 (£14,544 from standard sales and £820 from subsidised sales). This represents an increase of £12,299 compared to last year’s Aftershock sales, a significant rise that reflects both the success of the new ticketing system and the overall growth of the festival. While Aftershock ticket revenue increased, the figures remain broadly consistent with 2024, demonstrating financial stability and

sustainability from Sonic Boom’s first year to the present. The introduction of a single ticket has clearly enhanced accessibility and boosted attendance, with visitor numbers rising from 424 to 606, an increase of 182. The project resulted in a total physical attendance across its live events of 5606. This accounts for ticketed audiences across aftershock shows and 5000 attendees during the course of the day at the Market Place Main Stage. Digital engagement across socials and media reach is in addition to this.

Total Attendees

Ticket Revenue

Audience In-Venue Spend (Based on MVT Industry avg @ £13.70 p/h)

Audience Out-Venue Spend (Based on UK Music avg @ £13.46 p/h)

Market Place

5000

£68,500

£67,300

Aftershocks

606 Full Price 82 Low Income

£15,364

£9,425

£9,260

£15,364

£77,925

£76,560

TOTAL

Professional Opportunities Event

Number of Acts

Number of Individual Performers

Number of Professionals & Roles Supported (inc. Engineers, Box Office, Design, Promotion, Planning etc)

These audiences have a financial impact. We have utilised established and recognised metrics to calculate the spend per head by each event’s audience both in the venue (Music Venue Trust’s 2023 Annual Report) and outside the venue (UK Music Wish You Were Here, Contribution Of Live Music To The Economy) during events.

Main stage

Market Hall

The College

Brewhouse

Tower Brewery

When combined with Ticket Revenue, this equates to a Total Financial Impact Stimulated of £169,849, a ROI of x2.43 against the project investment. So for every £1 invested by ESBC, £2.43 was generated. This only takes into account directly attributable traded revenues and does not include additional funding sources that were realised, utilising ESBC’s investment as match.

BCA Stage

Town Hall

Library

Buskers

TOTAL

144

115

The social impact of SB 2025 is evident through the opportunities it created for local people and the growth it stimulated within the knowledge and skills economy. Across the festival, 59 bands and acts were given live performance opportunities, involving a total of 144 individual performers. Compared to last year’s figures (32 acts and 97 performers), this represents an increase of 27 acts and 47 performers, a clear indication of progress and momentum within the Sonic Boom project. In addition to performance opportunities, the festival supported 115 professional roles, up from 68 last year, an impressive increase of 47. This continued expansion underscores the festival’s growing social impact and further strengthens the case for establishing a dedicated community music venue in Burton, which could serve as a lasting hub for this thriving sector.

TURBO Education Programme The TURBO programme continues to grow as a flagship immersive learning experience for young people, now expanding the age to 15–25 to allow for greater outreach, offering real-world insight into the live events industry. Now in its second year, the 2025 programme expanded both in scope and participation—achieving 30 course completions and piloting a new “Nitro” initiative with 4 returnees to recognise returning learners with the Silver Level Arts Award. Supported by East Staffordshire Borough Council and Burton & South Derbyshire College, the course continues to align with the Arts Award framework to create a structured, accredited and accessible pathway into creative careers, particularly to those facing barriers in formal education environments.

HIGHLIGHTS

Growth & Retention

Headline Data

2024

2025

Applications

Onboarding to Google classroom

Attendance (one or more sessions)

Backstage tour participants

Course completion

•

Record Uptake: 30 young people successfully completed the 2025 programme—up from 8 completions in 2024.

•

Nitro Silver Level Pilot: Introduced the Nitro pathway, awarding previous participants a Silver level accreditation opportunity, deepening their technical and leadership skills.

•

Developing Partnership with Burton & South Derbyshire College: Under the leadership of Creative Area Director Simon Nobbs, who also leads the Turbo project, a deeper collaboration between Sonic Boom Music CIC and Burton & South Derbyshire College is emerging. This relationship is creating new opportunities for alignment between education and live industry practice-linking the college’s creative curriculum directly with Sonic Boom’s real-world festival environment.

•

Peer Leadership & Mentoring: Past participants returned as peer mentors under the Nitro framework, strengthening community continuity

The rise from 8 to 30 completions demonstrates the effectiveness of earlier school outreach, clearer progression routes, and the growing reputation of the programme.

LOOKING FORWARD- TURBO 2026 •

Sustain: Targeting 30 combined completions across Bronze and Silver awards with Gold piloted embedded.

•

College Collaboration: Formalise the partnership with Burton & South Derbyshire College to explore further funding opportunities and create additional accreditation routes and festival-based assessment models.

•

Industry Integration: Develop clearer routes into employment or ongoing voluntary opportunities through Sonic Boom’s expanding network.

•

Community Recognition: Continue to feature participant work and stories across the Sonic Boom programme.

•

The Turbo programme has evolved from a pilot into a proven, scalable model of experiential learning, delivering tangible outcomes for local young people and shaping a sustainable creative pipeline in Burton upon Trent.

Nitro Silver Pilot: This new layer rewarded commitment and ambition. By offering Silver-level recognition for returning participants, the programme bridged the gap between first exposure and professional readiness; encouraging deeper engagement with the creative industries. Developing College Relationship: The growing collaboration with Burton & South Derbyshire College, guided by Simon Nobbs, marks a major step in embedding Sonic Boom within the area’s educational ecosystem. The partnership promises shared resources, co-delivered learning, and greater progression opportunities for students; from classroom projects to live event participation. This integration reflects the shared aim of strengthening creative industry pathways across both education and the wider Sonic Boom community.

DID WE ACHIEVE WHAT WE SET OUT TO? Considering the project’s core mission, to UTILISE MUSIC AS A TRANSFORMATIONAL OPPORTUNITY IN THE REGENERATION & PLACEMAKING VISION FOR BURTON UPON TRENT, we can reflect on another year of tangible, demonstrable success. As has been set out within this report, Sonic Boom Festival 2025 has delivered on the first of our strategic goals, continuing to create local capacity, know-how and partnerships to deliver large scale live music events in Burton upon Trent’s regenerated, town centre. These developments are hugely valuable, given the aspirations set out in ESBC’s High Street & Market Place projects. This year’s festival has also delivered against our second strategic goal, continuing the vital and fundamental development towards a permanent, non-profit, Community Music Venue, in Burton upon Trent. The partnership, audience, organisation and infrastructure development outlined in this report sets an exciting platform on which on which to build into the future. Building on the partnership established with Arts Council England was also a key priority, which has been successfully achieved. Arts Council England awarded an additional project grant to ESBC in 2025 to support the delivery of the festival. This relationship is now established across two

years of Sonic Boom Festival and both parties are actively exploring how strategic support for ESBC’s Cultural ambitions can support continued development in our town. Delivery of the 2025 festival was to be a key milestone in the evolution of Sonic Boom Music CIC, which has been supported throughout this period with mentorship from Craig Pennington at Future Yard CIC. This organisational development has ben focused on strategic, governance development and establishing sustainable future business resilience, alongside supporting the successful delivery of 2025’s festival.

its culture-led regeneration ambitions. TURBO’s growth was also significant, rising from 8 to 30 course completions, demonstrating real and lasting community impact and a thirst for opportunities.

As has been demonstrated within this report, Sonic Boom Festival provided a unique and valuable opportunity through which to mobilise and animate Burton upon Trent’s place brand and tourism strategies.

Partnerships and developing relationships with key advocates further reinforced Sonic Boom’s status. BBCIntroducing and This Feeling hosted their own curated stages, while Laney and British Drum Co. provided backline support. Music Venue Trust also extended its collaboration by serving its ‘Fightback’ lager, raising funds for grassroots venues across the UK. Recognition within national sector reporting to government demonstrates the significance of our project’s ambition. The quality of these relationships and this national standing will also be vital to Sonic Boom Music CIC’s long-term success and an enduring, mutually beneficial partnership.

Through its pop-up in Cooper’s Square, multiple town-centre stages, and the expansion of TURBO, Sonic Boom deepened its connection with local communities. These initiatives not only enhanced brand awareness but also fostered community trust, essential groundwork for any potential future venue. The range of performance spaces, from the free Market Square main stage to Burton Town Hall, The Brewhouse and Tower Brewery, reflected both Burton’s heritage and

Since the festival, Sonic Boom Festival has been nominated for Independent Festival of the Year by the UK Festival Awards. Other nominees include Bearded Theory, Beat-Herder, and Shambala Festival, all long-established events. This nomination - alongside a nomination for ESBC at the LGC Local Government Awards - are clear testament to Sonic Boom’s rapid success and growing reputation, highlighting both its potential and increasing national recognition.

NEXT STEPS Given the success of the project, we are presented with a unique opportunity to utilise music as a transformational opportunity in the regeneration and placemaking vision for Burton upon Trent. In order to realise this, we intend to continue forward momentum anchored on two strategic goals; 1 - To establish a permanent, non-profit, Community Music Venue, in Burton upon Trent. 2 - Create local capacity, know-how and partnership to deliver large scale live music events in Burton upon Trent’s regenerated, town centre assets (High Street Project & Market Place). During 2026, these goals will be served by a series of shared objectives - including the delivery of Sonic Boom Festival 2026 and focussed efforts to establish a permanent, future home for music in Burton. This work will be delivered in partnership between ESBC and Sonic Boom Music CIC, with the aspiration to build on the relationship established with Arts Council England.