Music Operations Director Appointed To Drive Growth Of GigPig’s Expanding Hospitality Network

The UK’s fastest growing live music marketplace, GigPig, has appointed its first Music Operations Director as the business continues to strike up partnerships with major pub, bar and restaurant brands.

Luke Geoghegan joins from The New World Trading Company (NWTC), which operates a nationwide estate of well-known hospitality brands including The Botanist. The senior appointment underpins further growth at GigPig, a platform which provides hospitality venues with a streamlined way to search, book and manage entertainment in-house and offers artists the chances to find, play and get paid for gigs.

Geoghegan’s appointment also cements the GigPig and NWTC partnership, with all 31 NWTC sites now accessing the GigPig platform to book live entertainment as part of the move. This is expected to see more than 500 gigs performed across the NWTC estate a month; boosting venue footfall and securing regular work for local artists.

So far in 2024, GigPig has facilitated over 30,000 gigs UK-wide and secured a multi-million pound investment to support its scale-up plans. GigPig has also secured and expanded upon pivotal partnerships, working with numerous hospitality brands such as BrewDog, Alberts Schloss, Stack, Arc Inspirations, EastCoast Concepts, Katie O'Briens; showcasing a positive direction of travel as the platform onboards major operators as part of their live music operations.

Geoghegan’s career spans music and hospitality industries, and his appointment will enable GigPig to boost its 8,000 artist and 800 venue network further. Having previously held the position of Head of Music at NWTC, Geoghegan has experience in implementing strategies to build music into a strong branded offering for major hospitality operators. In his role at NWTC, his team booked in excess of 20,000 gigs across the country in the time he was in position, between January 2022 and October 2024; as well as hosted several festivals at larger sites and successfully opened new venues.

Luke Geoghegan, Music Operations Director at GigPig, said:
“I’m excited to be joining GigPig as Music Operations Director, bringing my experience and passion to support the growth of GigPig by working closely with their incredible community of artists and venues. Music and hospitality have been central to my career to date, they are two industries I’m really enthusiastic about. I plan to help the GigPig team to realise the ambitions of this brilliant mission-led business, which is all about creating a fair industry for artists and boosting revenues for hospitality partners. The fact that my appointment further strengthens the network of NWTC sites for GigPig is a fantastic start and I look forward to developing this, and other pivotal partnerships, further.”

Michael Forster, CEO of GigPig, said:
“We’re really excited to welcome Luke to the team, he’s highly respected in the music and hospitality sectors; seamlessly making sure live entertainment is high quality when delivered at scale while adding real value to hospitality venues. Luke will give GigPig the opportunity to build on our already-established relationships and help us to open even more doors as we continue to scale-up our business.

“Our mission remains to make every pub, bar and restaurant a stage for artists in order to support both the music and hospitality industries. Luke is dedicated to making a difference and we’re delighted to be working with New World Trading Company as part of this next step. It comes on the back of a busy few months in which we were delighted to welcome new hospitality brands, plus expand on existing partnerships. We’re proud to work with amazing operators including BrewDog, Alberts Schloss, Stack, Arc Inspirations, EastCoast Concepts and Katie O'Briens; plus many more.”


Amber Wood, Managing Director of NWTC, said:
“Live Music has always been a key pillar for our brand with customers enjoying live music every weekend at The Botanist, along with our hugely successful Botanist Live Festivals. This year, we’ve enjoyed our biggest and best Manifest yet at Manchester’s Oast House – providing free live music for thousands of music-lovers. Through our partnership with GigPig, we can’t wait to make live music even bigger and better than it’s been before at NWTC.”