For many people around the world, Liverpool is defined by the music scene and many University of Liverpool students spend a lot of time at music events across the city. For Ioan, this formed part of his student experience as well.
“I was attending a large number of music events in the city and in Manchester - probably too many. This was a great way to develop my passion for music and music culture. I promoted parties around Liverpool whilst at university and these activities both informed and were informed by my studies.”
After Ioan finished his masters, he was searching for jobs and ‘half-heartedly’ applying for roles in London, before some friends started asking him to come back to Liverpool to organise another party. Eventually, along with his friend Tom, he bought 24 Kitchen Street and started work on the site, which is when his business partner Saad joined the venture.
“We had to replace the floor, dig up the sewers and sort out the electrics. It’s been an uphill battle a lot of the time, but we’ve come a long way to now booking world-renowned artists, whilst helping to develop some really good local ones.”
Ioan was nominated for the award by his former dissertation supervisor Dr Michael Jones who says, “The venue’s significance should not be underestimated. Ioan’s openness to the widest range of genres and communities has seen him offer the space to our Chinese students to create their own music events.”
Ioan continued: “I’m proud of the whole team we’ve got at 24 Kitchen Street and our position within Liverpool’s various music scenes and I would like to highlight the importance of protecting independent venues in Liverpool and across the country.”