Data Thistle

From today, music fans across the UK will have their voices heard like never before. The Music Fan's Voice have launched the first ever Music Fans’ survey at https://bit.ly/4gsA9uX that puts gig-goers at the heart of the conversation, shaping the future of live music. From ticketing to venue choice, this groundbreaking survey — backed by major city leaders — gives fans real influence on the decisions that matter. Inspired by the fan-led review in football, this is a pivotal moment to ensure live music thrives for generations to come. Your voice counts — and it takes just 15 minutes to be part of the change.

We're so excited to be working with DestinationCore and Visit North Yorkshire to make this happen!

It's been a busy start to 2025! We've been lucky enough to ring in the new year by welcoming a new partner: Experience Sussex Partnership! In their own words: Experience Sussex is an ambitious development programme dedicated to unlocking the transformative potential of East and West Sussex’s visitor economy. We can't wait to help tourism in Sussex grow and thrive with the power of live events data. ✨

Massive well done to everyone at Visit Brighton for this. Well deserved for a vibrant city with a thriving events scene. Congratulations! 🎉

Thank you to Destination Core for featuring us and for spreading awareness of the power of live events! We help destination marketing organisations across the nation to attract visitors with our UK-leading live events data. Find out how below and get in touch to see what we can do for your destination.

Events data is messy, fragmented, and hard to collect. With Data Thistle’s structured supply of information, we aim to work alongside Music Venue Trust to help form a clear picture of the UK’s Grassroots Music Venues landscape. Music Venue Trust has fought for communities and emerging artists by protecting local venues, and its decade of success has driven significant change in UK government policy. Receiving the Outstanding Contribution to Grassroots Music Award 2024 isn’t something we’ll soon forget. Data Thistle, together with the allies of Music Venue Trust, will continue supporting this essential movement that strengthens the grassroots ecosystem. #GrassrootsMusicVenues Credit: Georgia Penny Photo

Live events should be accessible to all, and disabled voices are key to making this possible. Please support Euan's Guide's important work in making public spaces more accommodating to disabled patrons!

Fantastic to see how impactful events can be to local economies. Amazing stats here!

What better building blocks than LEGO? Here at Data Thistle we’re in an exciting time of growth and change. At our recent all-staff day we spent some time brainstorming ideas around who we are, who we want to be, and how we might build on the fantastic work we’ve been able to do over the last few years. We talked a lot about articulating our services and finessing the language we use. As you can imagine, sourcing and organising complicated data sets – and making them useful to our very different clients – is sometimes a difficult thing to encapsulate in a few words. Being able to take some time out and get our talented team together in one room is always a fantastic way to reinvigorate our passion for delivering a top-notch product, and indeed, a great excuse to play with LEGO and unleash our creative (and competitive) energy!

When Data Thistle started archiving live events information, it was to create a cultural record of the UK as a whole. Recent work with Campaign for the Arts (read the excellent 'State of the Arts' if you haven't already) has highlighted the importance of this mission. The data we collect has myriad commercial uses, but it can also provide the hard facts needed to sway politicians' minds and strengthen the UK's vibrant cultural sector. Yesterday the Music Venue Trust stated that the average length of a tour has dropped by nearly 50% since 1994 thanks to rising costs - we will shortly be working with The Audience Agency to better understand this trend.