Heats and venues

Heats

Heats will be taking place at venues across the city in April, May and June. The venues are Millsy’s Café Bar, Coventry Caribbean Centre, The Tin Music and Arts, The Arches Music Venue and The Castle Grounds, look out for more heats and venues!

The heats are divided into six categories, Indie, Urban, Alternative, Rock/Metal, Singer-Songwriter and Under 18s. Bookings for the contests will be managed by the appropriate venues for each genre and the Under 18’s category will be managed by the Coventry Music Hub. To enter you'll need to apply via the Coventry City Council Website. 

Judges and voting

Venues are responsible for the selecting of the artists. The judges for the main heats will be organised by the Coventry Godiva Festival organisers. Where there are mini-heats the venues will provide the judges. 

Each venue can hold as many heats as they deem necessary – the winners for each genre of music will go on to perform on the Godiva Festival Main Stage.

Both the judges and the audience will vote at the heats. Their votes will then be used to select the winners.

Each judge will have to declare if they have a vested interest in any of the artists and will subsequently have to withdraw from judging that heat. 

Dates, times and locations

Indie: The heats for the Indie category will be taking place at the Castle Grounds Pub (7 Little Park St, Coventry CV1 2UR). They'll be taking place on 3 May, 10 May and 17 May. 

Rock/Metal: The heats for the Rock/Metal category will be taking place at the Arches Music Venue (22 - 23 Arches Industrial Estate, Coventry CV1 3JQ). They'll be taking place on 5 May, 12 May, 19 May and 26 May.

Urban: The heat for the Urban category will be taking place at the Coventry Caribbean Association (159 Spon St, Coventry CV1 3BB). This heat will take place on 17 May.

Singer-Songwriter: The heats for the Singer-Songwriter category will be taking place at Millsy's Cafe Bar (20 Earlsdon St, Earlsdon, Coventry CV5 6EG). They'll be taking place on 14 April, 21 April, 28 April, 5 May, 12 May and 19 May. 

Alternative: The heats for the Alternative category will be taking place at The Tin Music and Arts (Units 1 - 4, The Canal Basin, CV1 4LY ). They'll be taking place on 15 May and 16 May.

U18s: The heat for the U18s category will be taking place at The Tin Music and Arts (Units 1 - 4, The Canal Basin, CV1 4LY ). This heat will take place on 2 May.