Over recent years, Oxford has seen several local live music venues close due to a wide variety of issues, such as increasing commercial rent costs and skyrocketing service costs – resulting in less space for grassroots music. Oxford is lacking space for arts and culture.

As an increasingly popular gig venue for bands and DJ nights, Common Ground hopes to make putting on local live music as accessible as possible – for both the artists and the public. We have plenty of music equipment available to use, outside off-peak street parking, and a capacity of 120 people.

Since 2018, with the help of local promoters and gig organisers, we have put on hundreds of gigs for local artists and now we are ready to start putting on our own gigs. We want to make this as fair as possible and after many discussions with the community, here’s what we’ve come up with.

We are offering FREE venue hire for musicians and performance artists. Common Ground will organise the ticket sales and we will offer a 25% cut to the performing artists. There will also be an opportunity to sell any merchandise. We can offer as much guidance as you may need every step of the way to make your first gig as successful as possible. We will also help you promote the event.

We welcome all genres of music, and all ages of artists and bands. We have already assisted several artists put on their gigs, such as Blue Bayou, Double Yellow Lines, Lenny Lewis (& Lenka Sessions), Voyeu Rhythm, Poynta, and Dayglow.

Our long-term goal is to expand this project into high-quality live studio sessions, recorded in our bookshop space. This will help to establish local musicians with an online presence too.

Do you want to get involved? Drop us a line at events@commongroundoxford.com and let’s get the ball rolling!