Success Story:

The London Art bar

Meet the London bar owner bringing Glastonbury indoors

Gareth Shelton, Co-founder of The London Art Bar, in conversation with TheMusicLicence

The London Art Bar is an event space and cocktail bar located between Holborn and Chancery Lane in London, which is hosting a Glastonbury watch party this year.

Tickets for this year’s event at Worthy Farm sold out in just 20 minutes, which meant thousands of music fans will have to miss out on the festival experience.

According to our research*, one in five (18%) will be visiting their local pub or bar to watch their favourite artists, more than half (54%) would watch from the pub if they could, with the atmosphere (61%), big screens (41%) and food and drinks (41%) being the biggest pull for Glastonbury watchers.

We spoke to Gareth Shelton, co-founder, The London Art Bar to find out why they run themed events, and how they plan to bring Glastonbury indoors in London.

“We opened just after the pandemic and rather than being a bar which happens to run events, we’re very much an event space that happens to have a bar. Most of our activity is screenings or sip-and-paint events, meet-ups or anything else that’s a little bit different.

“What we like to do for our screenings is make events a bit immersive. For instance, when we screen the movie Pride in June, there’ll be rainbows everywhere, or in the past when we’ve hosted Eurovision screenings, there are flags from all participating countries around the venue.

Glastonbury is somewhere you go with friends, and the music brings us all together. It’s an occasion where people can really join in. The whole idea is that you’re watching this with other people.”

Gareth Shelton, Co-founder, The London Art Bar

Bringing Glastonbury indoors – creating the festival vibe

“We’re screening the Sunday of Glastonbury Festival – sort of in place of Eurovision screenings, where the contest has become controversial – and planning a full ‘indoor festival’ from 1:30 on the 29th of June.

“We’ll recreate the festival vibe with a few haystacks for seating (which I think our cleaner will resent us for the next day) and swap glassware for paper cups, so it feels like you’re at a festival. I think it’ll be a really fun day. We haven’t hired a portaloo for the day though – I think our customers will thank us for that!”

the london art bar

Music brings everyone together

“I think one of the things we’ve seen after the pandemic is that people buy tickets for stuff a lot more last minute than they used to so it can be a bit of a gamble, unless you find the perfect cultural moment. For example, we hosted a watch party for the finale of The Traitors earlier this year which was a sell-out.

“Glastonbury is somewhere you go with friends, and the music brings us all together. It’s an occasion where people can really join in. The whole idea is that you’re watching this with other people.

“Particularly in a world where people work from home and so many are reporting loneliness. They’re struggling to meet and date people, so it’s lovely to have a space where you can come together, meet strangers and have a shared experience.

“I consider that to be the real value we provide. Whether it’s Glastonbury or Eurovision or The Traitors, the whole idea is that you did this with other people and shared the experience.”

Atmosphere is vital

“The atmosphere we create with these kinds of events is really important. As an events space, music has always been a huge part of what we do. When we run sip-and-paint events, music is the soundtrack to energise the room. It helps drive the pace of an event.

“We host a lot of music events and when you have a performer with great music and stage presence, the crowd are really engaged which creates a really exciting and kind of warming atmosphere for a venue.

“When we first hosted a gig in the bar just after we’d opened, I thought, oh. This is why we do what we do – that’s a really nice thing for me to remember, so music will always play a crucial role in bringing people together and having the right atmosphere to keep the crowds engaged.”

References

*A survey commissioned by PPL PRS of 500 British people without Glastonbury tickets in May 2025.

Get TheMusicLicence

Discover how music could help you to turn it up and make your business even better!

Please contact us or complete our Get TheMusicLicence Form to arrange a quote.

Call us on 0116 290 0525

8am to 6pm Monday to Thursday and 8am to 3pm Friday

Get TheMusicLicence

Related

Oliver Bonas

The Oliver Bonas story began with their founder, Oliver Tress – who used his creative upbring, passion for design and experience of sourcing gifts and

Read More »

Ready to play music?

Set up a new music licence for your business or organisation.

Get TheMusicLicence