VAULT Creative Arts Will Launch New Venue, the Lower Marsh Arts Club
The Glitch will officially become the Lower Marsh Arts Club on the 7th September 2026.
This autumn, VAULT Creative Arts, the former producers of VAULT Festival, will open the doors to their newly refurbished venue, the Lower Marsh Arts Club (or LowMAC). Formerly The Glitch, the Lower Marsh Arts Club will cement the organisation’s transition to a permanent fixture at the heart of London’s theatre ecology.
VAULT Creative Arts was founded in 2021 out of VAULT Festival, London’s largest annual arts festival. In its final outing in 2023, the festival reached over 100,000 audience members with nearly 2,000 performances of over 500 shows for 6 weeks in February/March. However, in 2024, the festival lost its home and was closed permanently – a huge blow to not just VCA, but the performing arts industry as a whole.
Emerging from the ashes of this, the VCA team began an experiment at their café, bar, and base of operations just around the corner from The Vaults – The Glitch. How close could they come to matching the impact of VAULT festival, year-round? In their first year, they overhauled programming, refurbished the bar, and introduced a raft of artist development programmes (including the annual VCA Playwriting Award). In this time, they hosted over 400 shows and events and supported over 1,000 artists.
Now, the company is committing to this work by opening the doors to the Lower Marsh Arts Club in September. The venue will host up to three shows a night – a selection of theatre, comedy, cabaret, and more, programmed through regular open-callouts to ensure access for everyone, at some of the most affordable rates in London. They will also host three festivals each year – including Highlight festival for Fringe Previews in July, and a festival of new writing in November. They will continue to grow their artist development schemes, including the Stephen Joseph Transfer, which offers a headline who at the venue the opportunity to transfer to The Cockpit, giving meaningful opportunities for artists to actually advance in their career. While regular social and networking events will help artists build community and, most of all, have fun!
Artistic Director Oli Savage said: “We are so excited to be launching our new project, the Lower Marsh Arts Club, this September. VAULT Festival was such a vital part of the Fringe landscape in London. We want to honour that legacy - a brilliant, enticing festival providing unparalleled opportunities for artists, and amazing experiences for audiences – whilst also driving towards a brighter future. We’ve set the groundwork for this at The Glitch. And I’m now so looking forward to the new ways we can surpass this under our new identity, LowMAC. This will be a space where artists come first, and where we can meaningfully challenge and innovate on what early-career artists actually want and need to do their best work!”
In making this change, the company hopes to cement the legacy of VAULT Festival as a vital part of London’s theatre history. They aim to create an unparalleled quantity and quality of opportunities for early career artists to make work, develop their skills, grow their networks, and have a really good time doing it. In doing this, they will offer a truly brilliant, exciting, fun creative programme in an enticing social space, that audiences want to see.
And at the same time, the company will set off on a new adventure, hoping to define what the best version of fringe theatre in London can look like for many years to come. It’s a new identity that honours what came before, and celebrates what’s till to come.
The Glitch will officially become the Lower Marsh Arts Club on the 7th September 2026.
