Venue which held candlelit gigs when power was cut off has been saved after amazing support

A city centre venue which held candlelit fundraising gigs after its power was cut off has thanked Liverpool supporters who rallied round to save it.

Artefact on Roscoe Street found itself without electricity in December last year.

But regulars and the city’s creative community in particular stepped up to help, playing acoustic gigs to raise money and prevent the venue from going under.

Now owners Jane Allen, her son Alex and partner James Symonds are preparing to reopen in April once an enquiry into their energy complaint is settled.

Jane says there’s no doubt that the amazing support they’ve had has kept Artefact alive:

“Only since we had to close have we realised how important it’s become to people in the city and how much we are loved. We love all our customers too and we miss them because we’re friends,” she says.

“As soon as they heard what had happened, people reached out to us, saying lovely things and asking what they could do. 

“Liverpool is an amazing community, and the creative community especially has been so lovely and so supportive. It’s been very humbling and emotional, and it’s kept us going.”

Jane, James and Alex opened Artefact in May 2023, initially as a space to sell vintage furniture and homeware alongside a coffee shop.

“We spent six months completely renovating the building and during that time art initiative Shuffle approached us and asked if they could do a pop-up. They got a temporary licence, brought in a DJ and it was great. 

“From that lots of people were saying what a good place it was to have gigs, so we started doing more and that side just kept growing. In an organic way, we became a creative hub and we really enjoyed being part of that.”

Things were looking positive for Artefact when the energy problems began.

Jane explains:

“When we set up, the premises was already with an electricity supplier so we just carried on with them. At first the bills were quite low because it was at the time when prices went sky high and the Government was subsiding energy bills, but then suddenly they tripled.

“We started trying to contact our supplier but we could never get hold of them, on the phone or online. They would ring us sometimes but it was just an automatic payment line when really we wanted to speak to someone. 

“We realised we were on the highest tariff, as a default, and I worked out we were paying about double what we would have paid on a normal tariff.

“James was constantly trying to ring them and eventually got numbers from forums. We finally got through to somebody in October last year but by then we owed a lot of money. I said we wanted to set up a payment plan, but they wouldn’t discuss it unless we paid £5,000 there and then which we couldn’t.

“I kept asking how we could get out of the situation by paying a monthly amount, but they said we were on a debt path and there was nothing they could do. We carried on paying what we could but on December 16 they came along and disconnected us.

“The only way in is through an electric shutter, so we had to hire a generator to open it up, put the lights on and then to secure it.  But they left us high and dry, we couldn’t operate, so it was a bit of a nightmare.”

They started a complaint’s process with the Ombudsman, but with no revenue coming in they risked losing everything.

It was when they shared their situation on social media and with regulars that the help flooded in.

“Other venues put on fundraising things for us, and various bands offered their services to raise money. We had no electricity so they had to play by candlelight, but they did it anyway which was lovely.

“The first gig we had, we had to turn people away, we were so busy. We’ve also set up a donations link and been doing a furniture raffle at different tiers, to win various prizes because we wanted to give something back to the people who’ve been so generous.

“All those donations and money raised has allowed us to pay the rent, not lose the building and not lose the business.”

With a resolution expected soon, Artefact hopes to be able to move to a new supplier, get reconnected and reopen by mid-April.

Until that happens, one of its biggest supporters, local musician James Jackson, has organised another pay-what-you-can fundraiser on Friday April 4.

“James was at our first one and asked to do another, then he said he’d keep doing them until we were back open. It’s things like that make you realise our little passion project means so much to people. And they mean a lot to us, we’ve become part of this music scene in a way we never expected, and we absolutely love that.”

Find out more about Artefact here.

Find more music events across Liverpool here.