Josh DeMello is opening his 1000 capacity Under The Arches venue for good.
Leeds was once a city which boasted various nightclubs and one of the country’s most impressive rave scenes. However, just in the last year alone, Leeds has lost some of its most beloved venues.
Financial struggles have forced leading venues such as Old Red Bus Station, Wire and Pryzm to shut their doors over the last year with no other companies having stepped in to fill their spaces thus far.
On September 27, however, new venue Under the Arches is set to host its first gig headlined by garage DJ, MPH.
Located on Lower Briggate, the venue aims to preserve Leeds’ nightlife, as the venue took to Instagram to say “too many venues lost. Too many dancefloors gone… we aim to do our bit to keep the underground scene alive in Leeds.”
With a capacity of 1000 people, Under the Arches promises to “keep Leeds on the map for underground music at a crucial time for the scene,” boasting how the venue was “built from the underground for the underground.”
This year, Leeds also lost the Imaginarium, which served as an event space for many local, up and coming DJs and creatives.
While the Imaginarium have announced they have only closed temporarily while they locate a new venue to operate from, in the meantime a GoFundMe page has been set up to raise funds to assist the company in finding a new location. So far, £4760 has been raised.
Stick to the Slug, which is a relatively new Leeds-based collective of DJs looking to provide a platform for DJs to showcase their talents, frequently hosted events at the Imaginarium, and have felt the loss of having a designated space for up and coming artists to establish themselves.
Jack Preston, founder of Stick to the Slug, has said of Under the Arches, “it’s good that there’s a new, bigger space for people to get together to enjoy different genres of house music.”
Under the Arches has previously hosted tester events hosted by Ruckus24, led by promoter and owner Josh DeMello. Preston felt as though the prior exclusivity of events held there was a hindrance to the community.
“It’s nice for it to be opened up so other brands can host events here, unfortunately smaller brands obviously wouldn’t be able to afford the costs to host here as it is such a large space.”
Despite collectives such as Stick to the Slug not being able to afford to hire a space such as Under the Arches, Preston still sees the opening of a new underground rave venue as a “beacon of hope” that may reinvigorate the rave scene in Leeds for good.
“With Under the Arches being a larger venue that will be booked up by bigger brands, I hope they take time to actually give back to the ‘underground’ they are basing the venue off of. I think it would be a good idea for them to add a ticket levy to help support underground artists, so some money can go back to smaller venues.”
Frequent raver Samantha Diment went to a tester event hosted at Under the Arches, and looks forward to the official launch.
“It’s such a big venue, which Leeds doesn’t have many of, so it was a very exciting and different atmosphere to the smaller venues I’ve been to in Leeds.”
Tickets for Under the Arches’ first gig are currently on final release, promising a busy night for ravers in Leeds.
