About Faith In Strangers

Faith In Strangers is a 300-capac­i­ty com­bined arts venue that pri­mar­i­ly focus­es on music while cel­e­brat­ing all forms of cre­ative expres­sion. Locat­ed in Cliftonville, Mar­gate, our venue is renowned for its bespoke, cus­tom-built sound sys­tem, Posei­don.

Housed in a spa­cious, open-plan room, Faith In Strangers offers icon­ic sun­set sea views across Margate’s kalei­do­scop­ic skies, cre­at­ing an atmos­phere that is both unique and invit­ing. We wel­come DJs, selec­tors, and live acts from around the globe, all sup­port­ed by our vibrant local community.

At the heart of our space is a do-it-your­self ethos. With a tiny but high­ly effec­tive team, we have built and designed every detail from the ground up. Our founder, Jere­my Duffy has played a sig­nif­i­cant, hands-on role in craft­ing the venue, ensur­ing that every ele­ment reflects our pas­sion for art, music, and innovation.

Artis­tic Vision & Music Policy

Our aim is to build a com­mu­ni­ty that inspires and sup­ports artists, per­form­ers, and DJs to explore their curiosi­ties, exper­i­ment with new styles, and find fresh ways to hon­our her­itage and clas­sic influ­ences. Although we are root­ed in a pas­sion for elec­tron­ic music, dis­co, rar­i­ties, and psy­che­del­ic or exper­i­men­tal sounds from around the globe, our music pol­i­cy remains open and unre­strict­ed. We focus on uncov­er­ing unheard music, shar­ing it, and craft­ing an atmos­phere that trans­ports our audi­ence to new, excit­ing places.

Faith In Strangers is about the trust between peo­ple that cre­ates moments of uni­ty — a com­mon ground for uncom­mon expe­ri­ences. We give artists the room to exper­i­ment and shape these moments, steer­ing clear of gener­ic ​‘crowd pleasers’ and music you could hear at any bar across the UK. We plat­form a wide range of selec­tors, DJs, and live acts, some of whom you can see fea­tured below.

While our focus is strong on elec­tron­ic music, we also embrace musi­cal expres­sions from around the world, includ­ing jazz, clas­si­cal, live ambi­ent, tech­no, noise, bossa nova, and more. We are also gear­ing up for diver­sy­ing the cul­tur­al pro­gram­ming into film, com­e­dy and talks. 

Check out who’s played here so far;

What’s Next?

With invalu­able sup­port from the Arts Coun­cil, we’ve trans­formed our venue into a state-of-the-art per­for­mance space. Our upgrad­ed stage is now com­plete with our own back­line, high qual­i­ty micro­phones, and pro­fes­sion­al stage light­ing that make every live per­for­mance shine. Recent shows have already demon­strat­ed the incred­i­ble poten­tial of these enhancements.

We’re have also been able to cap­ture high-qual­i­ty video record­ings of per­for­mances, offer­ing bands and artists valu­able pro­mo­tion­al footage. As we pre­pare to ful­ly utilise our new broad­cast­ing facil­i­ties, we’re poised to launch a dynam­ic series of artis­tic talks and cre­ative events — each designed to deliv­er out­stand­ing val­ue for dig­i­tal tick­et holders.

With our superb foun­da­tion in place, we are ready to roll out a diverse annu­al cul­tur­al pro­gramme and expand into oth­er cul­tur­al events, tak­ing Faith In Strangers to new heights.

Our venue is an art instal­la­tion itself!

Our venue is more than just a per­for­mance space – it’s an immer­sive art instal­la­tion. Every detail has been care­ful­ly curat­ed to cre­ate a trans­for­ma­tive expe­ri­ence that fus­es art and archi­tec­ture — a con­cept we like to call ​“arti­tec­ture.” ;)

We’ve designed the space so that the audi­ence becomes an inte­gral part of the expe­ri­ence, mov­ing beyond the tra­di­tion­al lin­ear stage-to-audi­ence for­mat. In fact, we can dynam­i­cal­ly con­trol the art pieces as guests arrive, ensur­ing each vis­it is unique­ly engaging.

We have designed and built the fol­low­ing thus far;

The Posei­don Sound Sys­tem (Cus­tom Built)

Our pur­suit of excep­tion­al audi­to­ry expe­ri­ences led us to cre­ate a unique sound sys­tem, focused on high-fideli­ty and live music per­for­mance, our sys­tem fea­tures triple stacked coils and super low dis­tor­tion for sus­tained pow­er with­out com­pres­sion. Embrac­ing the lat­est tech­nol­o­gy, we craft­ed a sys­tem with DSP tun­ing, using top com­po­nents for a sound that is both Hi-Fi and live music ready.

The heart of our design is a hor­i­zon­tal horn, but with a focus on high-fideli­ty rather than sheer vol­ume. Our horn-led approach, cho­sen for its expan­sive stereo image and dis­per­sion, cre­ates what we call a ​‘demo­c­ra­t­ic sound’ expe­ri­ence, where clar­i­ty and detail shine through phase coher­ence and reduced inter­fer­ence. With a stream­lined birch ply design, they will be paint­ed in Klein blue, our sys­tem not only excels in reduc­ing dis­tor­tion but also com­ple­ments high-qual­i­ty mix­ers like the Iso­noe 420, reveal­ing the nuances of phono pre­amps. Con­stant­ly refin­ing and test­ing, includ­ing amps from Lin­ear Research, Lab Grup­pen, and Pow­er­soft, our pas­sion for acoustic excel­lence dri­ves us to con­tin­u­al­ly enhance our venue, mak­ing it a hub for unpar­al­leled son­ic experiences.

This sys­tem doesn’t just play music; it sculpts an acoustic envi­ron­ment, ensur­ing a ​‘demo­c­ra­t­ic sound’ that reach­es every­one, every­where in the venue, for a tru­ly unfor­get­table son­ic journey.

Broad­cast Suite

Our inno­v­a­tive broad­cast suite and future plat­form are at the fore­front of blend­ing live artis­tic expe­ri­ences with dig­i­tal acces­si­bil­i­ty. We’ve inge­nious­ly inter­con­nect­ed all aspects of our venue into a cen­tralised con­trol sys­tem, man­ag­ing all asects of the venue, such as our cus­tom fea­ture light­ing, along with CCTV, cam­era inputs and even our front door­bell. This inte­gra­tion allows us to cre­ate a ful­ly immer­sive envi­ron­ment for those in the venue while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly prepar­ing to share these unique expe­ri­ences with a glob­al audience.

Our sys­tem is designed not just to cap­ture per­for­mances but to enhance them, manip­u­lat­ing light­ing and sound in real-time from the same suite, to res­onate with the live audi­ence. It’s a seam­less blend of tech­nol­o­gy and artistry, enabling us to inter­act with on-site guests while lay­ing the ground­work for expan­sive dig­i­tal reach. By stream­ing we’re open­ing the doors to inter­na­tion­al view­ers, offer­ing them a taste of the Faith In Strangers’ expe­ri­ence from any­where in the world.

This har­mo­nious fusion of in-venue ambiance and dig­i­tal out­reach rep­re­sents our com­mit­ment to inno­va­tion. With each live per­for­mance at ​‘FIS Live,’ we are test­ing and refin­ing this sys­tem, ensur­ing that when we ful­ly launch our dig­i­tal plat­form, it will not only cap­ture the essence of our events but also extend the reach of our unique artis­tic expres­sions to every cor­ner of the globe.

The cir­cle light on our sig­nage below was designed to be our ​‘on air’ broad­cast light for if an event is ​‘live’.

Build­ing Facilities

Along­side the artis­tic inno­va­tions woven into our venue’s archi­tec­ture, we’ve also devel­oped our own in-house facil­i­ties man­age­ment sys­tem. This advanced sys­tem utilis­es smart devices, meter­ing, sen­sors, and APIs, all run­ning on our ded­i­cat­ed serv­er plat­form, to stream­line oper­a­tions and enhance efficiency.

Not only does this mean we can remote­ly con­trol the building’s facil­i­ties, but we have also linked the sys­tem to much of the venue’s cus­tom light­ing. We can now auto­mate sched­ules and art inter­ac­tions with our cus­tomers. This forms a key part of our sus­tain­abil­i­ty strat­e­gy, allow­ing us to mon­i­tor pow­er out­put and equip­ment health.

Our venue facil­i­ties are now ful­ly in place, and now it’s time to invest in our team to bring Faith In Strangers’ vision to life. Despite all the set­backs over the last few years, we remain com­mit­ted to our cre­ative mis­sion – and with the Arts Coun­cils sup­port we will make it happen.

Who are we?

Com­mu­ni­ty Projects

These ini­tia­tives rep­re­sent our com­mit­ment to nur­tur­ing local tal­ent and build­ing a col­lab­o­ra­tive artis­tic com­mu­ni­ty. Sup­port­ed by the com­mer­cial suc­cess of Faith In Strangers, these pro­grammes are key to our mis­sion of cul­tur­al enrich­ment and com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment, How­ev­er our ongo­ing efforts and future plans depend on the via­bil­i­ty of our com­mer­cial activ­i­ties, high­light­ing the sym­bi­ot­ic rela­tion­ship between our cul­tur­al con­tri­bu­tions and busi­ness suc­cess. We have plen­ty more con­cepts and ideas in the pipeline for fur­ther events.

Posei­don Sound Club

A bi-month­ly event offer­ing music cre­ators a plat­form to expe­ri­ence and refine their work on our audio­phile-grade Posei­don Sound Sys­tem. It’s more than a lis­ten­ing ses­sion; it’s a space for con­struc­tive feed­back, growth, and diver­si­ty in musi­cal styles. Open to all gen­res, Posei­don Sound Club fos­ters a com­mu­ni­ty where hon­esty fuels cre­ativ­i­ty, and every ses­sion is a chance for artis­tic improve­ment and connection.

Faith In Strangers Collective

We’re devel­op­ing a local musi­cians direc­to­ry plat­form to enhance net­work­ing and col­lab­o­ra­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties for grass­roots artists. We will then use this to form a col­lec­tive where we host numer­ous events show­cas­ing a diverse range of local musi­cians. It’s a dynam­ic plat­form for live per­for­mances, fos­ter­ing a vibrant local music scene.

We also have a com­mu­ni­ty and local per­o­jects page here as we offer the venue for free for local char­i­ties and com­mu­ni­ty projects where suitable. 

Full venue spec below.

We are ready to pur­sue our full cul­tur­al pro­gramme with your sup­port. Thank you for read­ing this far.