Music Venue Trust has provided £10,000 of match funding
Build Our Future - Realising Future Yard 2.0
Birkenhead, Merseyside, United Kingdom
£97,006
Target: £150,000
443 supporters
115 days left
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Aim
Join us in expanding our community music venue with a new 600-capacity space and studios, powering music, skills + opportunity in Birkenhead
We are Future Yard - Birkenhead’s community music venue and home for live music, creative community and skills development. Since we opened just prior to COVID in 2020, we’ve built something special: a place where audiences gather, artists thrive and local young people discover their potential through music. We believe that music can change the world; but we know we can do so much more.
Our Vision
Build Our Future is our step into a new chapter. With your support, we will transform Future Yard into a 600-capacity live venue and expanded creative hub, complete with 12 state-of-the-art studios, dedicated learning spaces and a vibrant home for artists and residents alike.
This is about Birkenhead’s cultural future - bringing bigger shows, more opportunities and real outcomes for people of all ages.
Read more about this ambitious construction project here.
Who We Are
We’re a passionate team of creatives, music professionals and community champions rooted in this place we love. We work with artists, educators, local partners and thousands of residents every year. We know the power of music to excite, connect and change lives - because we’ve lived it. Future Yard is constituted as a CIC, which means we're a non-profit with no directors drawing dividends. Any surplus we do make is reinvested into the work we do, which is all about using music to change lives and create opportunities for the people of Birkenhead.
What Do We Do
Future Yard isn’t just a venue. It’s a learning lab, a training ground, a platform. We have welcomed an audience of over 120,000 music-lovers since 2020, with 72.5% saying that their visit to Future Yard positively changed their perspective of Birkenhead. Through Sound Check, 166 young people gained hands-on experience last year alone. Through Propeller, 75 local artists received tailored development support, with 450 artists from the region performing on our stage in the past 12 months. 3,500 children are accessing a reimagined music curriculum. 1,443 children attended Mosh Tots last year. 95% of our event production team are Sound Check graduates. In one of the most deprived areas in the UK, music is already changing lives – every day. Imagine what we could do with more space.
Read our 2024/25 Annual Impact Report for further information on our impact.
What Are We Asking
By expanding our site as planned, we will be able to massively scale our operation. That means a venue that increases audiences by 50% within three years, doubling by year five. That means an additional 50 shows per year; 150 more local artist performances; 2,000 additional hours of training; jobs for local people and countless opportunities.
The total project cost is £3 million. 95% has already been secured through public funding: the Local Regeneration Fund, managed by Wirral Council and funded by the UK Government; and supported by Arts Council England’s Capital Investment Programme.
We are raising the final £150,000.
Once successfully achieved, these funds will be split:
- 50% (£75,000) to support construction costs and;
- 50% (£75,000) to support Future Yard’s Neighbourhood Tickets Scheme, along with our skills and training programmes delivered within the building.
This isn’t a bailout, or a plea to keep the lights on. This is about growth, and about creating real, long-lasting impact for generations to come.
What Your Support Will Do
By supporting this campaign, not only will you be providing the final piece of funding required for building construction, the money raised will also directly support our community. The £150,000 will achieve lots:
- Build a 600-capacity live venue capable of hosting national and international acts.
- Create 12 new studios and rehearsal spaces for emerging and established artists.
- Deliver skills programmes for young people and adults - from sound engineering to event production.
- Grow community events that bring people together and spotlight Birkenhead’s creative talent.
- Distribute 1000 free-to-access Neighbourhood Tickets for those most in need.
- Give out 200 Neighbourhood Tickets to our Mosh Tots shows.
Every pound you give will make it easier for artists to perform, young people to learn, and our neighbourhood to thrive. Your support builds walls. Your support opens doors.
Update
In the first four weeks of this campaign, we raised an incredible £95,421! We're hugely grateful for the support in us reaching that target, with our community showing us such generosity and positivity.
We are extending the campaign to 1st October 2026, to help us continue our efforts to reach our target. We're confident that we can still get there - but we're already proving that we are Building Our Future together.
How Can You Support
You can help us reach our target in a number of ways: you can donate to the campaign, using the donate buttons above. Or you can contribute in other ways:
- Prize Draws - You can enter one of our Prize Draws to win one-off prizes that have been donated from our close friends. We are kicking off with two great ones: a fan experience bundle for the huge rock group Enter Shikari; and the leather jacket worn by Jack White in the music video for Treat Me Like Your Mother (by The Dead Weather). Both of these are open now, and entries close on 14th April 2026. Watch out more exclusive, one-off prizes coming soon!
- Fundraising - Or you can set up your own Fundraiser, and attach your own project to Build Our Future, doing something to raise funds to hit our target. You might want to do a sponsored challenge like a run, do a marathon DJ set or host a DIY show or gig. You can add your own fundraiser now, by clicking here.
If you're a business and you'd like to partner with us on this project, you can find details of how to get involved with some specific packages here.
Why It Matters
This project isn’t just about a building. It’s about identity, opportunity and pride. Future Yard has already shown what’s possible; now we want to push the boundaries and ensure Birkenhead is known as a destination for culture - not just somewhere you pass through.
For the past six years, Future Yard has been proving what’s possible when music is treated as a transformational force. Now, we are presented with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to scale that impact.
Join us. Build Our Future.
#thefutureisbirkenhead
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 1st October 2026 at 10:00pm