• West End Centre Receives Music Venue Trust Bursary

The West End Centre in Aldershot is delighted to be one of just 50 UK music venues to be awarded a Music Venue Trust Earn Your Stripes Bursary. The Bursary, which is administered by the Music Venue Trust and funded by Red Stripe, gives young people a chance to join the live music team at grassroots music venues by taking up an internship at a small venue.



Mark Davyd, CEO of the Music Venue Trust said: “Creating the next generation of sound, lighting, booking and promotion staff is key to building grassroots music venues’ sustainability and to establishing a much needed succession plan – we want to make sure that the next generation of people running these venues have all the skills they need to create great shows for artists and audiences. We are delighted to have Red Stripe on board to deliver the much needed Earn Your Stripes programme to music venues.”



The music industry is one of the hardest industries to break into, and work experience is key, so Dom d’Entre Casteaux, who is studying Music Technology at Farnborough Tech, was delighted to be selected for the internship at Aldershot, which has allowed him to work with the venue’s Technical Manager. Dom said:



“This has been an excellent opportunity for me to learn the technical side of running a music venue. It’s a very helpful extension of my college course in music tech. It’s great to learn in a working environment from a Technical Manager with a great many years experience and knowledge. I have learnt about live sound, lighting maintenance, repair, artist liaison and crew as well as many other useful skills.”

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