Lower Marsh Arts Club Launches £8k Guarantee Model for Early-Career Artists

VAULT Creative Arts – the former producers of VAULT Festival – have officially opened 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 scene.

VAULT Creative Arts was founded in 2021 out of VAULT Festival, London’s largest annual arts festival. Since the festival’s closure in 2024, the organisation has been striving to deliver the same impact, but year-round, at their venue The Glitch. Transitioning their venue to its new identity – the Lower Marsh Arts Club – is the final step in this journey!

A key part of the organisation’s mission continues to be offering an unparalleled quantity and quality of opportunities for early career artists. As such, they are thrilled to announce two key elements of their plan for LowMAC:

£8k Guarantee

In Autumn 2027, LowMAC will pilot a guarantee model for shows. In this season, four early-career artists or companies will receive an £8,000 guarantee to create a show and perform a four-week run at the venue. The scheme aims to create stability for these artists in an increasingly risky landscape, offering them the time and space they need to create brilliant work. It will be a space for experimentation – for artists to try out ideas they’ve had for a while, but haven’t had the time, space, or resources to deliver.

Lower Marsh Arts Festival

In Spring 2027, LowMAC will launch the Lower Marsh Arts Festival. Most importantly, the festival will be free to artists. There is no venue fee, and they will keep 100% of the tickets sold. In doing this, they hope to massively reduce the risk that artists have to take when putting on shows. The festival will start out taking place at LowMAC exclusively, but expects to expand to include three more hyper-local locations (within 250 meters of LowMAC) in its first three years.

Artistic Director Oli Savage said: “It’s an incredibly risky landscape for artists at the moment. As a venue – as an institution and a bricks and mortar building – it’s our responsibility and our place in the ecosystem to help artists by reducing the risk they face. Unfortunately, far too many venues silo risk away from themselves and on to artists. With these two programmes, we’re putting our money where our mouths are. We’re creating an unparalleled quality and quantity of opportunities for early career artists. We’re hoping to prove that there is a model for fringe theatres that absorbs a lot of the risk, and free up artists to do what they do best – make brilliant art. I have a really good feeling about the future for LowMAC, and I’m calling on all the other venues, big and small, around London, to really think about where risk sits in their programme – and to really meaningfully think about what they can do to reduce the risks that artists face.”

In making this change, the company hopes to both cement the legacy of VAULT Festival, and start off on a new adventure, defining 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 next.

The Lower Marsh Arts Club officially opened on 8th September 2026.

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9/30 - 10/12/2026