Live Lounge-style event with six North East artists performing original music and acoustic covers of Mercury Prize shortlisted albums.
The Tavern at Fenwick hosts the Fenwick Fan Zone - Live Lounge Sessions on Thursday 22 October, as part of the Mercury Prize returning to Newcastle for the second year running. The main prize is back at the Utilita Arena, following local hero Sam Fender's win in 2025, and the Fan Zone brings some of that excitement into the city centre.
The night is set up like a Live Lounge session: six North East artists, each selected through a Generator open call, take turns on stage. Every performer plays their own original music alongside an acoustic cover of one of the 2026 Mercury Prize-shortlisted albums. It's a double-sided bill, so you get their own songs and a take on one of the year's biggest records in the same set. The format is designed to let you hear the shortlisted albums in a different light, with the acoustic covers stripping them back and the original material showing what the artists are working on themselves.
The whole thing sits within Generator's Mercury Prize Fringe, a programme of showcases and industry events run by the North's leading music development agency. Generator has been working since 1991 to develop artists and create routes into the industry through mentoring, programmes and partnerships, with offices in Newcastle and the Tees Valley. This particular night is one of the fringe events they've put together around the main prize.
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It's a good way to catch six local acts in one evening, and if you've been following the Mercury shortlist this year, you'll hear those albums reimagined by the people playing them. The Tavern at Fenwick is at 39 Northumberland Street, NE1 7AS, and the session runs on Thursday 22 October.
