The young venue has expanded its licensed hours – now its planning on expanding Greater Manchester’s music scene.
Fran (left) and Will (right) outside Salford council.
A budding nightlife venue in Salford that’s trying to ‘change club culture’ and ‘bring Grime to the North’ has been given the greenlight to extend its opening hours. The Bag Factory on Dickinson Street can now throw parties until 4am on weekends.
Owners Fran Melia, 31, and Will Maull, 28, said they were excited to put on more regular events, which include everything from launch parties for ‘screamo dance albums’ (Jenny Sparks) to Ministry of Sound veteran DJ-duo Ducksounds.
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Will said: “We’re very pleased that Salford Council has granted our extended license. The bag factory will continue to be a place where anyone is welcome to put an event on, no matter how big or small. We exist to serve the community and grass roots music.”
Fran added: “We’re really excited for the next year to put on world class events and hopefully get some bigger acts in too.”
The decision was made at the ‘shortest licensing panel meeting ever’ at Salford Council after the pair submitted a dossier of evidence of all the ways they had mitigated sound leaking out from their venue to the residential estate over the river. This included decibel testing, a control switch for loud bass sounds, and acoustic protection, which was tested ‘as loud as possible, with all the most problematic genres’, according to the pair.
The venue has also prepared against anti-social behaviour with extensive CCTV coverage and five SIA-trained doorstaff.
The application received 10 representations from neighbours, but no objectors spoke against the proposal at the meeting on Friday, August 21.
The venue has been hosting shorter day-time events for the past year after a monumental community effort to launch the 60-capacity space.
“We put all our savings and work into essentially creating a blank space for the community,” Will told the LDRS after the hearing. “All the character comes from the community. We bought the decks, the sound system, and we built the bar. Everything else – the lights, the decorations, the music, that’s from the community.”
Fran dreamed of launching the venue for years, which she says is a grassroots answer to the increasingly corporate nightlife industry.
