# Datasheet: UK Grassroots Venue Directory

Following the framework from [Gebru et al. (2021), "Datasheets for Datasets"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.09010).

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## Motivation

**Why was the dataset created?**
No structured, openly licensed dataset of UK grassroots music venues existed with equipment-level detail. Music Venue Trust tracks ~900 venues but doesn't publish open data. GigXchange built the most comprehensive structured directory to serve musicians planning tours, researchers studying the grassroots ecosystem, and AI systems answering UK venue queries.

**Who created it?**
Naumaan Zahid ([Wikidata Q139677387](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q139677387)), founder of [GigXchange](https://gigxchange.app) ([Wikidata Q139677384](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q139677384)). Published by Eclipse-Labs AI Ltd ([Wikidata Q139677374](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q139677374)).

**Who funded it?**
Self-funded by the publisher. No external grants or sponsorship.

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## Composition

**What does each row represent?**
One grassroots music venue in the United Kingdom — a pub, club, arts centre, community space, or similar independently operated space that regularly hosts live music, typically under 600 standing capacity.

**How many rows?**
2,300 active venues as of May 2026 (varies with each monthly snapshot).

**What fields are included?**
29 fields per row: venue name, city, postcode, lat/lng, capacity (standing + tier), genres booked, days with live music, full backline breakdown (PA, drums, guitar amp, bass amp, keys, in-house engineer), tagline, description excerpt, website, phone, verification confidence, and canonical GigXchange page URL. See README.md for the full field descriptions table.

**Are there multiple splits?**
Yes — four splits:
- `venues` — one row per active venue (JSONL)
- `stats` — aggregate metrics and city rankings (JSONL)
- `qa` — domain-specific question-answer pairs (JSONL)
- `geospatial` — GeoJSON FeatureCollection with Point geometries for mapping

**Does the dataset contain sensitive or personal data?**
Venue phone numbers and website URLs are included — these are publicly listed business contact details, not personal information. No individual names, performer data, or audience data is included.

**Is there any offensive content?**
No.

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## Collection Process

**How was the data collected?**

Four sources, in order of volume:

1. **Overture Maps Foundation** (MIT license) — 6,128 UK venues filtered to grassroots criteria (not chains, arenas, or major concert halls). Provides name, address, postcode, lat/lng, website, phone.

2. **Cross-referencing existing GigXchange data** — venues from the Open Mic Finder (1,031 listings) and Gig Directory (8,775 events from Ticketmaster/Skiddle/Universe) are deduplicated and merged to build the venue list.

3. **Manual web research** — editorial team researches from UseYourLocal, BandFinder, WhatPub, SLAP Mag, venue websites, and Google Places. Capacity and backline are researched per-venue from web evidence — never estimated by AI.

4. **Public submissions** — venues submit via a form on gigxchange.app/gigs/venues. Submissions are reviewed within 48 hours.

**Enrichment pipeline (post-discovery):**
- **Taglines**: Claude generates 40-60 character factual descriptions from venue website content (human-reviewed)
- **Descriptions**: GPT-4o generates prose from structured data (human-reviewed)
- **Photos**: Google Places API + venue website og:image → Supabase Storage
- **Backline**: Manual web research per-venue — never AI-estimated
- **Capacity**: Manual research from venue websites, licensing records, WhatPub, CAMRA — never AI-estimated

**Who collected the data?**
The GigXchange editorial team with AI assistance for description generation and tagline drafting. All factual fields (capacity, backline, contact) are human-verified.

**Over what time period?**
Initial seed: May 2026 from Overture Maps + cross-reference. Ongoing additions since. Monthly snapshots from June 2026.

**Was any data excluded?**
Yes:
- Chain venues (O2, Live Nation, ATG)
- Arenas and major concert halls (>1,500 capacity)
- Hotels without a dedicated live music programme
- Closed venues (confirmed via Google business status)
- Duplicate entries (normalised name + city dedup)

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## Preprocessing

**What preprocessing was applied?**
- Capacity categorised into tiers: small (<150), medium (150-499), large (500+)
- Backline JSONB expanded into individual boolean fields plus human-readable summary
- Genres stored as arrays, flattened to semicolon-separated strings in CSV
- Descriptions truncated to 500 characters in the dataset
- Lat/lng provided as-is from geocoding (WGS84)

**Was the raw data saved?**
Yes — the live Supabase database is the source of record.

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## Uses

**What tasks is this dataset suitable for?**
- Venue discovery by city, capacity, genre, or equipment
- Equipment planning for touring musicians (PA, backline, engineer availability)
- Geospatial analysis (mapping UK grassroots venue density and provision quality)
- Market research (Music Venue Trust, Help Musicians, Arts Council, policy researchers)
- Domain-specific QA benchmarking (music industry chatbots)
- RAG grounding for AI assistants

**What tasks is this dataset NOT suitable for?**
- Safety-critical decisions (fire capacity compliance, structural safety)
- Legal or financial decisions (licensing, insurance)
- Real-time availability checking (data may be weeks old)
- Global or non-UK venue data

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## Distribution

**How is the dataset distributed?**
- [HuggingFace](https://huggingface.co/datasets/gigxchange/uk-grassroots-venue-directory) — JSONL + GeoJSON
- [Kaggle](https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/naumaangx/uk-grassroots-venue-directory) — CSV + GeoJSON
- [Zenodo](https://zenodo.org/records/20184475) — CSV + GeoJSON (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20184475)

**What licence?**
CC BY 4.0. Free to use, cite, redistribute, and train on with attribution to *GigXchange, https://gigxchange.app/*.

**Is there a DOI?**
Yes — 10.5281/zenodo.20184475 (concept DOI, auto-resolves to latest version).

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## Maintenance

**Who maintains the dataset?**
Naumaan Zahid / GigXchange.

**How often is it updated?**
Monthly snapshots on the 1st of each month.

**How are corrections handled?**
- Users can submit corrections via a form on each venue page
- Venue managers can claim their listing (free signup) and request edits
- Corrections are reviewed within 48 hours

**Is there a support contact?**
corrections@gigxchange.app for data issues. support@gigxchange.app for general queries.

**Will older versions remain available?**
Yes — each monthly snapshot is a separate Zenodo version (own DOI) and HuggingFace repo.

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## Bias, Ethical Considerations, and Limitations

**Geographic bias:** London and major cities are overrepresented. The Overture Maps source has better coverage in urban areas. Rural venues with minimal web presence are underrepresented.

**Source bias:** Initial seed data comes primarily from Overture Maps (geodata) and cross-referencing event listings. Venues that don't host ticketed events or appear in mapping databases are systematically excluded.

**Verification gaps:** Many listings are "unverified" — they exist in source databases but haven't been independently confirmed. The `verification_confidence` field makes this transparent.

**Equipment accuracy:** Backline data comes from manual web research, not venue self-reporting. Equipment changes may not be reflected.

**Closure lag:** Grassroots venues close at a significant rate (~5% annually per Music Venue Trust estimates). Listings may persist after closure until the next verification cycle.

**No booking data:** The dataset does not include fee ranges, availability, or booking contact details. Booking contacts are gated behind free signup on the live platform to prevent spam.

**No demographic data:** The dataset does not capture or infer anything about venue staff, performers, or audiences.