FAQs

Want to know more about Cobalt?

want to know more about cobalt

We regret that we cannot exchange or refund tickets unless the event in question is cancelled or significantly changed or you have very extenuating circumstances – we work really hard for affordability, keeping most ticket prices between £8 – £12 alongside lots of free or PAYF events but we just don’t have the administrative team to deal with ticket refunds for incorrect bookings or changed plans. At times when our administrative capacity allows we may be able to transfer your ticket to another event.

Firstly you have to believe us that we will try really hard to reconnect your to your lost items, secondly you have to understand that we are a tiny under resourced team…

The calls for lost items start from 5am on a Sunday morning which can be really stressful. There is no box office here, no magic team – just a few overrun people – so please be patient with us and do the following…  

Don’t message Instagram or Facebook 

Send an email to hello@cobaltstudios.co.uk describing the item 

Wait for at least a few days, we really do try to be as quick as possible

We aim to email you back within a week to let you know if the item is here, check upcoming events for opening times and come by when we are open to collect it

Occasionally you could persuade us to post something to you in return for a healthy donation to Cobalt!

Only lovely, patient people please –  no room for arsey emails, we didn’t lose it!!

Ensuring best practice in accessibility is an ongoing process here, our intentions are all in place – our money and resources are still limited but we will work continually on every improvement we can make. Here is what we can tell you now and for any questions unanswered here or any requests for help please email us.

For any help that you need at all on the night etc please make our staff aware on arrival or some people prefer to email in advance, wherever possible staff are trained to point out the route to the venue, the toilets and to ask if you have any accessibility issues.

  • With the exception of no dropped section of the bar and automatic door pads we are fully wheelchair accessible
  • We do not have a hearing loop or interpreters available
  • Assistance dogs are welcome
  • Many events are fully seated and for standing gigs we have seating/viewing locations around the venue. On request we can provide a dedicated seat at the front during standing gigs, we also have plenty of peripheral seating with partial views.
  • There is some great seating with good views from a small mezzanine if you can manage a few steps.
  • For any help that you need at all on the night etc please make our staff aware on arrival
  • Our team have received training to help identify vulnerability issues in the late-night issues, if you are feeling vulnerable, please ask them for support at any stage in an event and they will do their best to help
  • For service at the bar there is a open section at the end which is easier for people in wheelchairs
  • To request a helper’s ticket please emails us in advance

We are developing a steering group with representatives form all kinds of communities who can advise us on getting better at all aspects of how we run, we also consult ‘Euan’s Guide’ & ‘Attitude is Everything’ websites for guidance on best practices.

We are always keen to receive feedback that will help us to improve. You can email us here.

All sorts of stuff. Cobalt offers a range of interactive creative & learning opportunities, life drawing, spoken word, music and more. 

We seek to showcase diversity, originality, and greatness, we are always keen to champion the brave, weird, wonderful, a lot of the music we program is experimental and new. And we like to dance -a lot.

Click here to see whats on…

Click here for an expanded description of what we programme and a gallery of images…

We do this for quite a few reasons, essentially, we are very small DIY team, and we need times when the venue is closed to re-program, rebuild, repair things & rest. We also have an unusual license where we are only allowed 36 late closes a year, so we build the program around this.  

Roughly we close for an extended spell over summer, a short time over Xmas & Jan and at Easter – these are also all times when people have other commitments.

When you get to know us you will find that we operate our weeks in a definitive pattern moving from the community and learning stuff at the start of the week to the club night on a Saturday.

We have some capacity for external and artist promotions, we also have capacity for work-based events during the day and we can offer team away days. At this time, we can’t offer private events, however this may change in the future.

Please see the Hire section for a more comprehensive answer to this question.

Our philosophy is to offer a good quota of free and pay as you feel events, and wherever we have ticketed events run by Cobalt we offer the options to chose what is most affordable for you & we aim to keep our average ticket price around £8-£10  (which on Thursday nights includes dinner as well as the gig). We work VERY hard to be affordable and as such we loose money on most live music & we can’t afford to make further discounts. If you are really struggling to meet these prices, please email us for a discussion – maybe you could swap some time for a ticket!

Our philosophy is to offer a good quota of free and pay as you feel events, and wherever we have ticketed events run by Cobalt we aim to keep our average ticket price around £8 (which on Thursday nights includes dinner as well as the gig). We work VERY hard to be affordable and as such we can’t afford to make further discounts. If you are really struggling to meet these prices, please email us for a discussion – maybe you could swap some time for a ticket!

All sorts – lots of local beers, craft beers, natural wines and a big selection of low and no including CBD drinks and Berlin’s famous ‘Club Mate’ – selling drinks and tickets is the only thing keeping us afloat most of the time – every purchase you make goes to support all that we do, we hope you will appreciate the choice that we carefully put together and we welcome feedback & requests!

Yes – every Thursday you can buy a ticket for gig and dinner – and we aim to get more snacks here in the near future too.

Every Thursday night when we are open we present ‘FRESH’, this is a night where we champion new music or music that is new to Newcastle in a chilled environment with board games, candles and room to relax. The music is often unheard of or unseen in Newcastle and it’s a night where we present two halves rather than support and headliner. Whilst you may not have heard of lots of the music we showcase, we select the acts for their creativity and quality and we have had some really beautiful gigs. The gig is £7 or you can purchase a £10 ticket which includes a homecooked meal.

The meal is plant based, with gluten free, nut free and vegan options, there is no choice but its all homecooked from scratch, often with organic veg and there is often a few components.

Timings for the night are 7pm doors, dinner 7-8pm, act one 8pm -8.40pm approx,  act two 9pm – 9.45 pm, occasionally we don’t hit these timings – but we do try as hard as possible to keep them tight so that you can get away in good time.

You can also purchase a season ticket giving you cheaper access to a whole season of Fresh gigs without the need to purchase a weekly ticket.

‘FRESH’ is a growing community and we are happy to see more and more attendees feeling comfortable to attend alone, especially women. We hope to see you soon.

Yes, there is lots of parking in the area and also directly outside Cobalt – it can be busier in the day and much quieter at night-time.

We are a tiny team, and we just don’t have the resources to get back to everybody very quickly – bear with us though we do always get there in the end.

Cobalt actively programmes and promotes diversity, tolerance for all, unity & community, these values have no weight without a lot of thought and care to create a really safe space appealing and open to all visitors. We want you to feel cared for and safe at all times when you are here whatever the event so we have put lot of care into various messages that we promote around the space such a zero tolerance for hatred or exclusion of any kind.

We also train our staff carefully in our values and also specifically as to how to offer support anybody feeling vulnerable  in the Late Night Industries. They have also completed the NCC Shout Up scheme raising awareness of sexual harassment issues and how to handle them, they are also chosen for being really nice helpful people whom we trust to do their utmost best to help you if need and to help you have a chilled and comfortable time here.

On club nights – please don’t take any pics at all. Its invasive and interrupts the flow for others in the space – it reduces expression and abandon and just isn’t very nice- be here, be on the dance floor, be offline!

 

On other nights a few pics/videos shared on social media can be really helpful to the venue and the musicians, but it can also be really distracting in quieter gigs having phones out for longer than necessary and its quite hard to watch people say on phones when the musicians are playing.

For louder, dancy, busy gigs of course talking and socialising 100% welcome, for quieter gigs where the audience is entirely focused on listening please respect the musicians and go outside for chats or wait until the interval.

We are a non-for-profit social enterprise simply because we choose to prioritise culture and community and social impact over private gain.

Our aim is to operate as a self-sustaining business able to support culture and community with aspects such as club nights, private hires and co-working.

Every membership, ticket and drink you buy helps to support everything that we do here, and we are so grateful for your support. 

Any profits created go back into supporting culture & community.

Absolutely YES, we have in the past received some generous donations that have made the most enormous difference to us and what we are able to offer.

This really depends on the nature of the event, please send us an email.

Our team is very small but we like to make space for the right people wherever we can. We are also happy to work with people with the right attitude but no formal experience. Please email us your CV with an introduction to who you are and why you would like to work at Cobalt.

At the moment we are not well resourced enough to formally manage volunteer opportunities, but if you truly want to get involved and aren’t fussy about jobs please do email us with your rough availability and skillset and we will see what’s possible. You might also want to consider being a part of our steering group.

We do run a lot life drawing classes and we do always need models on rotation , we are especially keen to represent all kinds of diversity. Please do email your details to hello@cobaltstudios.co.uk we will keep them on file and contact you if an opportunity comes up.

We like to have a chance to respond personally, if we haven’t got something right, you’ve been upset or you just want to let us know how we can get better please get in touch, bear with us and we will get back to you.

If we haven’t covered something you need to know send us an email and we will try to get back to you ASAP.