This UK music festival is building homes and tackling homelessness: ‘It’s a festival of giving’

It’s fair to say January is not the prime UK music festival season. Between the tightening of belts post-Christmas, the advent of Dry January and Storm Éowyn keeping people indoors – it’s hardly boom time for entertainment and hospitality.

But the one-of-a-kind Beat the Streets Festival dances to a different beat.

Since 2018, promoter DHP Family has put on the January festival across a host of venues in Nottingham to raise cash to tackle homelessness.

All the proceeds from the music festival – from ticket sales, down to the merchandise and cash behind the bar – goes to Framework – a homelessness charity running outreach services in the city.

The latest iteration of the festival took place on 26 January across venues including Rock City, Rescue Rooms, The Bodega and Rough Trade and raised the total tally generated from the gigs to more than £500,000.

More than 50 acts took to the stage in the 2025 iteration, including Riding the Low – the side project from actor Paddy Considine – and Nottingham-based rapperJayahadadream who won Glastonbury’s 2024 Emerging Talent Competition last year.

It’s a varied line-up. Heavy metal band Evil Scarecrow told the Big Issue that’s a “rare and beautiful thing”.

“This is one of the only opportunities a metal band like ours gets to play alongside pop acts, indie acts, acoustic sets and DJs,” the band said.

“Everyone involved with Evil Scarecrow is an eclectic music fan, we take not only inspiration, but also solace and joy from all kinds of music, so it’s pretty magical to be involved in something that embraces that so wholeheartedly. It also gives us the chance to play to a crowd which would never normally come and check out a comedy heavy metal band. 

“All of that is before you even consider that it’s raising money for Framework, one of the most worthy and important charities of the moment. We have seen the rise in homelessness in Nottingham and we want to contribute in any way we can to help people get off the streets, times are hard and we should all be stepping up to help those struggling most in our community.”

DHP Family managing director George Akins previously told the Big Issue he was moved to set up Beat the Streets after noticing increasing homelessness in Nottingham back in 2017.

The promoter said the plan was to “try and plug some gaps”.

“We’re really pleased that we’ve been able to raise significant numbers each year for Framework and we’re really happy that we’ve been able to help in areas where we know they need help. So that’s been fantastic,” said Akins.

“Thank you to all the artists, attendees and staff who have contributed time, effort, and money to make our fundraising so successful.

“But just generally, it’s just a problem and it’s never going to go away it seems and it’s just getting worse and worse. If we could do more, we would.”

The festival has had a real impact on the ground over a time period when homelessness has grown across the country while the frontline organisations that support people off the streets have seen budgets pushed to the brink. 

In total, 46 people were counted on Nottingham’s streets in the most recent single-night rough sleeping snapshot in autumn 2023, up sharply from 27 in the previous year. Meanwhile, 750 households were assessed as homeless in the city in 2023/24, official government figures show.

Last year the charity was able to open Akins House – named after the DHP Family promoters behind the festival, George and Sean Akins – offering eight purpose-built flats for rough sleepers. Beat the Streets covered a shortfall of around £90,000 to ensure the development went ahead.

Claire Eden, head of fundraising and communications at Framework, told the Big Issue that the money from the unique festival allows the charity to go further when supporting people off the streets and plug an annual funding gap of £189,000 for its street outreach teams.

“We do get funding from the Nottingham City Council to deliver the service but what Framework has chosen to do is to enhance that service,” said Eden.

“So the money coming from our winter appeal and from the festival funds the specialist posts that we have: we have a mental health navigator, we have a social worker, we have drug and alcohol specialists.

“They are the bits that really connect people with services, connect people to having care assessments, getting them accommodation, linking them in with the services that can get them off the streets and keep them off the streets. Making it more joined up. Helping somebody maintain and sustain accommodation to change the course of their lives.”

Framework has just completed 15 units for women who’ve been rough sleeping while planning permission has recently been approved for 20 homes for men. But the latter development faces a funding gap of £1.2m, Eden added.

In a world where local authority funding is overrun – Nottingham City Council said it was facing effective bankruptcy in November 2023 – and the hospitality sector is scrambling to make ends meet while homelessness soars, Beat the Streets is changing the tune.

“There are always gaps in what we’re trying to deliver. DHP Family are just really engaged and keen for the money to go where it’s most needed at any point,” said Eden.

“It’s a real challenge to help people find somewhere that’s sustainable, that’s long-term, that’s affordable. I think people need to make sure they get access to the wraparound support that they need to be able to make the decisions that they want about how they want to live in the future.”

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