Birmingham's hung council, quiet venues, and a few honest thoughts

We have just had an all-seats election in Birmingham, all the council seats up for grabs. The results are in and it’s quite the mix across the board. Reform holding the largest number of seats, with Green and Labour close behind in second and third. A hung council, one of the biggest in the UK, and no obvious route for any of the parties to form a leadership coalition.

As an LGBT+ business owner, the rise of Reform is worrying. I don’t like the rhetoric and othering of so many of the communities that they have been advancing, but it obviously plays well with parts of the people who also live and work here. I’d say thrive, but at the moment that’s a huge challenge due to rising costs of living and running a business.

I attended a couple of the open meetings with candidates, in the Jewellery Quarter and a more general hustings. Many of the issues raised were the same. Safety, especially at night on the streets. Potholes. Bin collections, or the lack of them due to the ongoing bin strike. Pavement parking. Lack of SEND services. Budget cuts across the board. And a generalised lack of interest in protecting community assets like Station Street, the campaign to save Birmingham’s historic music and theatre quarter.

Throughout the local election campaign, there were few candidates actively putting forward suggestions to support the hospitality sector, be that local pubs, bars, restaurants or hotels. There was a general consensus that something should be done to help venues, but no clear ambition or plan to actually do something. Just broad brush pleasantries.

Let’s see what happens is the best I can say. I’ll be hopeful that the plague of pavement parking at night will be addressed, that street lighting will be improved so people feel safe walking home at night, that the potholes will be fixed, and maybe, just maybe, the bins will be emptied regularly and the growing population of rats this ongoing strike has helped to grow will be dealt with.

What I’ve been seeing in venues

I’ve been very lucky and have been into many, many venues in the last few weeks, working and also enjoying time with friends. Joys of bank holiday weekends and slightly better weather. That said, many of them were dead. At times when they should have been busy. Especially when they have gone to the expense of putting on entertainment, which came as a surprise when we arrived as we didn’t know about it before we pitched up.

I’m not going to name names, that’s bad form. But you know who you are if you had a fantastic guitarist and vocalist playing to a crowd of 9 people on a Sunday afternoon, 4 of which were in our group.

It’s especially noticeable when I’m covering quizzes for hosts at venues, and I’m seeing numbers decline. Why? Is a question I ask myself a lot. I know from personal experience that crowds on a quiz night can be variable, and perhaps I’ve just hit a bad night.

With drink and food prices going up to try and recover some of the rising costs to venues, and general rises in the cost of living without the matched rise in true take home wages, popping out for a quiz or karaoke is a challenge.

Three things to take away

In a blog post full of musings I’m supposed to conclude with 3 points for people reading this to take away and be inspired, and to be honest, I’m struggling. But here goes.

1. Let’s be hopeful. That the new council actually gets on and sorts the issues out that are within its power, and the national government also get their shit together and tackle some of these massive cost of living pressures and costs that are impacting the hospitality sector.

2. Be kind. Everyone is feeling the stress and strain. Venue staff don’t control the prices, your local bar has to at least break even to survive.

3. If you take one thing from this: advertise your events. Not just the act or host, but the venues too. Most venues have far more followers than your local quiz, music bingo or karaoke host. Put it on your socials, on a poster, whatever. Let people know what’s going on. You may just get an extra couple of people through the door.

That’s the bit DotAlt cares about most, and it’s why we keep showing up at venues, even on the quiet nights. Because the next one might be packed, and the people who do walk in deserve a proper night out.