Great British Pub Awards, Best Live Entertainment Pub

Pub Awards: Best Live Entertainment finalist - The Oast House, Manchester

By MA

- Last updated on GMT

MD of New World Trading Company, Chris Hill
MD of New World Trading Company, Chris Hill

Related tags Oast house Music

Originally opened as a quirky pop-up bar in 2012, the Oast House has morphed into a successful permanent drinking, dining and entertainment venue in vibrant Crown Square.

Run by the innovative New World Trading Company, turnover topped £4m to April 2016, with 33% of revenue driven by events.

Local workers and shoppers can experience free live music, with the outside stage used, on average, 100 days a year. Key events are the four bank holiday Sunday Spinfests, with eight bands on two stages, plus an animal farm to entertain children; Oastoberfest, a two-week festival of German beer with live music; and the huge successful Christmas tepee.

Agency

CEO Chris Hill and the Oast House team work closely with Genre Music Agency, who share their vision for supporting local talent and innovation to provide the best acts and deliver originality.

The company invests heavily in digital marketing and has an in-house design & marketing team, which has built separate websites for their main events, with videos and live streaming online. There are 25,000 active followers on Twitter and good use is made of Facebook Live.

A huge part of the success of the Oast House (and other NWTC venues) is investment in staff training, including the recently launched Tribes project which focuses on team spirit through competitions and events to engage and reward staff.

Related topics Entertainment