Sub Focus Adds £1 Grassroots Venue Levy to His 2027 Arena Shows
The drum & bass star will donate £1 from every ticket for his 2027 O2 and Co-op Live shows to LIVE Trust, joining the growing grassroots venue levy movement.
Sub Focus is putting his money where the underground is. The drum & bass veteran announced this week that £1 from every ticket sold for his two 2027 UK arena shows will go to LIVE Trust, the charity funding grassroots venues, promoters and artists across the UK — the small rooms where basically every DJ you love learned how to work a crowd.
The shows themselves are the biggest of his career: Sub Focus presents Circular Sound hits The O2 in London on March 26, 2027, then Co-op Live in Manchester on March 27, 2027. Circular Sound is his immersive live production concept, and taking it to two of the UK’s biggest arenas on back-to-back nights is a serious statement for drum & bass — a genre that’s been kicking down bigger and bigger doors all year. He made d&b history at Red Rocks with WORSHIP just this summer, so the momentum is very real.
“Grassroots venues and promoters are where I learned my craft,” Sub Focus said in the announcement, calling those spaces “an incubator for future stars of our industry.” Hard to argue. Nobody debuts at The O2 — you get there through a decade of sweaty 300-cap basements, and most of those basements are barely hanging on right now.
That’s the point of LIVE Trust, which launched in 2025 and runs on voluntary £1 levies from arena shows with capacities of 5,000-plus. According to the charity, artists including Harry Styles, Gorillaz and Lily Allen have already helped raise around £1.5 million through the scheme. “The strength of LIVE Trust comes from artists recognizing that a small contribution at major shows can make a real difference,” CEO Jon Collins said.
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What’s notable here is that dance music has been slow to join the levy movement compared to the rock and pop worlds — so a flagship d&b act signing up matters, and it sets a precedent for every other electronic artist booking arenas next year. Tickets for both Circular Sound shows are on sale now via subfocus.live. That extra quid might be the best money you spend all year — it’s buying somebody’s first gig.
