Minty's Gig Guide
Big Lemon creates Minty’s Gig Guide online - powering 100,000 more gig-goers for Cardiff indie venues.
Let’s Set The Scene
The not-for-profit CIC project Minty’s Gig Guide originally commissioned Big Lemon to build a platform to support this years’ BBC Radio 6 Music Festival and showcase all of the bands and venues taking part in the 6 Music Festival Fringe.
Building on that success, map creators Daniel Minty and his friend, artist Jack Skivens have continued to work with Big Lemon to update the guide to host year-round live-updated gig listings for over 70 different spaces right across the city.
The Challenge
Big Lemon has built a ground-breaking interactive map for Minty’s Gig Guide to promote independent music venues in Cardiff which launched in September 2022. Minty’s Gig Guide has pledged to attract 100,000 people to live music in Wales in the next five years — with updated location information and live gig listings, the online map ensures that live music is more accessible, visible and inclusive in Wales.
The original interactive online version of ‘Minty’s Map’ was built in a few short weeks running up the Radio 6 Music Festival by Big Lemon. We had a very tight turnaround to develop the original map - but our team loved being part of the excitement building in the city ahead of the 6 Music Festival.
The illustrations of each venue by local artist Jack Skivens are unique and make the map beautiful to navigate. We’ve worked hard to celebrate that work in building a clean, quick-to-load interface for the listings to ensure they’re always up to date.
It’s great to continue to be part of the project and keep alive such a great resource for the independent music sector in the city.
From its inception in April 2022, the project has been a collaborative partnership including Big Lemon, Creative Wales, FOR Cardiff and Welsh ICE.
“The map is a really useful tool for visitors to the Welsh capital, and helps users to navigate their way around the wealth of venues, gigs and events that Cardiff has to offer. Supporting grassroots venues has never been more important and aligns with Welsh Government's vision to boost the creative sectors.”
Gerwyn Evans, deputy director, Creative Wales
The Tech Bit
- Interative, scalable map.
- CMS for Minty to upload new gigs.
The Outcomes
The map includes details and listings for more than 70 sites in and around Cardiff city centre which regularly host live music - from larger venues like Chapter Arts Centre and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama to more intimate spaces like The Queer Emporium and Rhostio.
As well as enabling Minty’s Gig Guide to deliver on its mission to increase the number of people supporting live music and independent venues in Wales, the CIC is also now working with academics at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media & Culture (JOMEC).
Researchers will be able to use the data from the new website to explore the economic impact of Cardiff’s music landscape in more depth than ever before, whilst also developing and building an archive of music heritage.
“Live music gives the powerful gift of joy and unites people in the most special of ways. We hope that our offering can play its small part in giving the choice and the decision to go back to the gig-goer and away from the social media algorithms.
“The amount of talent in and coming to Wales is so rich and it's important to extensively broadcast that. The real graft now begins in exploring what comes next in our new explorative exciting journey with Cardiff University; bringing the offering of live music on our very doorstep to the pocket of each person within South Wales.”
Daniel Minty, creator of Minty’s Gig Guide
