No money? No problem. On the art of living life as a penniless music-lover in London.

When I came to London four years ago, I was far more excited about the capital’s rich music scene than I was about starting university. Naturally, I expected life in the big city to be more expensive than the Polish countryside. Little did I know, however, the size of the difference was far greater than I could have imagined. Having barely enough money to survive as an Imperial student I couldn’t even think of buying expensive tickets to gigs. It felt kind of bittersweet – I was finally so close to all these iconic venues and my favourite artists, yet they remained so out of reach. Nevertheless, I was keen to explore the new sonic landscape I found myself in. My growing interest in world music led me to realise that gigs of this kind were usually pretty cheap (if not free!) and the vibe is always great. You could get unbelievably high quality for low prices, so of course I started exploring options there. Like with everything else in life, the first step is all it takes to get the ball rolling and soon I learnt about numerous venues offering free gigs across various genres and ways to get discounts.

Now, after 4 years of studies at Imperial College filled with hard work and intense research, I can say with confidence that I possess a wealth of knowledge about cheap gigs in London, which I am generously deciding to share with you, dear poor student, in this article. Here are my tips on how to get the most out of London scene without spending a fortune.

Join Alternative Music Society

Start here. It’s the best society at Imperial. (I’m not at all biased, I definitely didn’t spend half of my time at Imperial being on the committee…). AMS sells subsidised tickets to gigs, but most importantly you’ll meet cool people who share your passion for music and can help you stay updated about everything music. Also, watch out for the events organised by other societies. Jazz&Rock holds regular events where you can listen to Imperial’s very own student bands at the Union for free or for a couple of quid. We also have orchestras, choirs, acapella groups etc. who perform regularly, so if you want to experience the artistic side of Imperial and support your friends, go and explore what Beit venues have on offer.

Visit small venues

Enjoying live music from the comfort of a campus sounds like a nice option. It’s easy to limit yourself to the Imperial bubble, but by all means try not to! Once you feel comfortable with your new home and have made new friends, get out of South Ken and explore. There are plenty of pubs in London that host live rock/blues/jazz bands and don’t always charge for entry (and if they do it’s a very small fee), for example: The Old Blue Last, The Shacklewell Arms, The Blues Kitchen, Ain’t Nothin But… the list goes on. Some record shops like Rough Trade also host gigs, especially on Record Store Days, though sometimes it means you have to buy something from them. If you fancy listening to some classical or chamber music, then visit London churches which often organise free concerts or visit our RCM neighbours.

Go to festivals

London hosts loads of festivals. During the summer plenty of open-air events happen all over the city and some have free entry, like the Walthamstow Garden Party and the Korean Festival in Trafalgar Square, so keep your eyes open for those. The currently ongoing London Jazz Festival has the whole lot of free shows in its programme. And let’s not forget about the BBC Proms. The biggest classical music festival in the world that offers 75 concerts over two summer months happens just across the road. You can enter the grand auditorium of Royal Albert Hall for a mere £6 and be blessed with world-class performances. If classical music is not your thing, don’t worry, the festival also features Late Night Proms, which I can’t recommend enough. Over the years I have seen the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Nils Frahm, Quincy Jones, Jacob Collier, Stormzy, Laura Mvula and Leo Pellegrino playing with an orchestra as part of this series. Watch out for the shows conducted by Jules Buckley, they are always pure gold!

Join young people schemes

Some of the most prestigious London venues offer generous schemes for people between 16 and 25 (sometimes 30) years old. Young Barbican is a free membership scheme that gives large discounts on tickets to most events and you’re never charged a booking fee. Sometimes they even have free events. So there you go – for very little money you can enjoy wonderful artists in one of the London’s most famous venues – the Barbican Centre. I saw Tim Hecker there for only £5 in September. Another pearl of brutalist architecture – Southbank Centre – also warmly welcomes young people to their buildings. They offer probably the widest range of free events and they always have a limited number of student tickets with 25% discount. Moreover, you can sign up for their “under 30 scheme”. Every two weeks you will be sent an email with the promo code to get free or £10 tickets for selected events.

Going further east into more hipster parts of London, RichMix in Shoreditch offers a Mixer membership for a fiver. You can get free tickets to some of their shows, if you’re quick enough. Although, don’t expect any big names here. On the other hand, Get In members can get £5 tickets for some of the shows at Roundhouse.

(I’m focusing on music here, but these memberships give you discounts on other things too, such as cinema, exhibitions and theatre).

Download apps

You may want to download a few apps to save some pennies. If you’re a classical music geek, then get StudentPulse and you will get access to classical music concerts across London for no more than a tenner. If you’re planning on seeing big names and decide to spend those £60 on Arctic Monkeys, consider buying it through Dice if possible – you will at least save a couple quid on the booking fees. Dice’s fees are much lower than other ticketing agencies and every now and then they put on sales, which means you can save even more money. And if the event is sold out and your last resort is a second-hand ticket – get it through Twickets – don’t get ripped off by ViaGoGo scammers. Twickets is a reliable reselling platform supported by many artists allowing tickets to be sold only for face value or less.

Take part in competitions and random draws

“You never win these things” people say, but you often find they’ve actually never tried or gave up after one failure. There are a lot of websites that try to organise your free time and promote cool things to do in London. They often have free tickets to shows to give away in competitions or promo codes for discounts. So keep an eye out for offers from TimeOut, London Calling, Mr Hyde etc. If you sign up to their newsletters you will stay updated about what’s happening in London and know about free opportunities. The drawback is that your mailbox gets filled with useless shit as well. But it can be worth it - that’s how I got to see Massive Attack for free at BST festival in Hyde Park. Follow your favourite artists on social media, they also post about free giveaways for their shows.

I also strongly recommend signing up for BBC audiences. They record concerts of all kinds (ranging from classical through jazz to rock), radio, and TV shows. They need to fill up their studios with an audience somehow and they do that through random draws. You just need to apply. I was lucky enough to be in the audience for one of the episodes of Later… with Jools Holland (after about 2 years of applying though, so be persistent!).

Work or volunteer

Last, but not least, if you don’t have money but do have time, a good option is to volunteer at festivals. It’s not ideal, as sometimes you’re not able to see your favourite acts, but you can at least watch some gigs as a reward for your work, and you get the chance to be close to the action and spend time in areas not accessible to regular customers. You can also try to get a job at one of the venues and get paid whilst also being able to catch a glimpse of what’s happening on stage. This is basically what happened to my life after graduation.

That’s it from me. Now, go and enjoy some live music, there really is no excuse not to!