Help Us Keep Building Colossal Youth

Hi everyone,

We’re Colossal Youth, a not-for-profit collective based in the centre of Great Yarmouth.

We’re in the middle of fixing up a large, Grade II listed building to create a space for music, art, and community in a town that’s been overlooked for far too long.

This wasn’t planned. We lost our previous venue due to a change of ownership, and rather than let it all die, we found this place and just started again. It’s bigger, older, and rougher around the edges. But it’s got potential, and we’re doing everything we can to bring it to life.

In the meantime, we know a lot of people have been left without a space; no rehearsal rooms, no affordable gigs, no place to just be around others and make noise. That’s part of what’s driving us, we know this is needed.

We're not experienced fundraisers, we don't have an admin team, or a funding applications expert, in fact we're pretty disorganised and running on a wing and a prayer, it's just a few of us doing what we can with what we’ve got, using our own skills, time, scrap materials, a will to succeed, and our DIY ethic to build something useful, open, accessible and real. But doing it our way, autonomously, and with love for it all., the venue, the music, the people, and the town as well. And of course, as a bonus, we also happen to be preserving a historic building that might otherwise fall into complete disrepair.

Since the beginning, Colossal Youth has always run with this semi-official "mantra" in mind:

“We don’t want to make money from this, and we don’t want to lose money from this.”

That’s how we’ve done it so far—and we’ve made it work before. We kept a venue alive without funding, grants, or backing. Just graft, the support of our scene, and a refusal to give up.

Now we’re doing it again—on a bigger scale, in a bigger space—and it’s hitting hard. We’ve been covering the costs ourselves, but we’ve reached the point where we need some help to keep moving forward.

Where your money goes:

Plumbing – we’ve got no working toilets yet, and we need to sort that fast

Electrical work – the building hasn’t been properly rewired in decades

Emergency lighting and signage

Materials – for the bar and general repair work, working out disabled access and toilets

Soundproofing

Tools and supplies – we’ve been borrowing, bodging, or doing without

Every penny goes straight into the project.

None of it comes to us, we just want to get the space working so people can use it.

We’re working on long-term funding, but that takes time, and we need to keep moving now.

If a bunch of people chuck in a fiver or a tenner, we can get back on track and start opening the doors, even in a limited way.

If you can help—thank you.

If you can share this—thank you even more.

If you want to come down and lend a hand—message us.

That’s it really. Thanks for taking the time to read this—it’s all appreciated, please do what you can. The direct effect it's had on people can't be underestimated, any help you can give will be a force for good!

May your chips be forever safe from the seagulls.

Best wishes from all at Colossal Youth