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ENTRIES CLOSE 11PM MONDAY 26TH MAY
ALL CONFIRMED ENTRIES LISTED HERE
ONLY GOT 2 MINS? HERE ARE THE HEADLINES. 
- Pick your strongest, most appropriate ORIGINAL track.
- EMAIL it to us as an attachment OR streaming link at hello@nusic.org.uk with the subject line ‘FSN 25 ENTRY’.
- You MUST also confirm your ‘Nottingham-ness’ (where you’re from or living in the Greater Nottingham Urban Area).
- And that you are available to play on Sunday 6th July (Rock City Final), plus Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th July (Splendour).
Nusic is all about raw talent, so we do accept phone / DIY recordings if you do not have studio recordings yet.
But if you do have studio recordings, send us those as they’re more likely to do you justice.
BUT YOU SHOULD PROBS ALSO READ THESE BIG BEAUTIFUL RULES TO MAKE SURE YOU QUALIFY…
ROUND ONE RULES – #FSN2025
YOU MUST BE FROM AND / OR LIVING IN THE GREATER NOTTINGHAM URBAN AREA – Get your Google on if you don’t know what that is.
You could probs also ask ChatGPT if you’re in it. 
ALL-INCLUSIVE
To encourage all musical genres and musical combinations to seize this opportunity, we have a number of rules that aspire to encourage a diversity of participants in FSN that reflects both the incredible musical diversity across Nottinghamshire as well as our own founding principle about supporting all genres. FSN is not just about bands, as awesome as the bands of Notts are. So:
– We have a rule to ensure solo artists are not disadvantaged.
– We have a rule to make FSN accessible to electronic artists, rappers and MCs (in other words, musicians who often perform purely with pre-recorded backing).
– We have a rule to ensure artists performing Hip-Hop, Grime, Soul, Reggae, World, (any form of) Electronic Music plus any genre related to these six musical families, from whom we classically have less entries (proportionally), are encouraged to seize this opportunity.
Details on these rules below.
SOLO ARTISTS
– At least two solo artists must make the final eight. This would normally mean if eight bands (definition = non-session musician featuring musical combos of two or more) take the top eight places then the 7th and 8th place bands will be replaced by the highest-placed solo artists.
– Our definition of a band (above) does allow for solo artists who are not playing solo. An act with more than one person playing on stage that is named after the lead singer (who writes their songs without contribution from any session musicians they play with), and in which the other musicians are effectively session musicians (and so are significantly less motivated to put the effort in to secure a Final place), is deemed a solo act. We’ll be direct with you, this is probably the trickiest grey area to address in the whole of FSN. Over the years we have found this definition to be the best compromise, we know it’s not perfect. As with all these rules, we promise we’re trying our best.
MUSICAL DIVERSITY
– At least one of the Eight Finalists will be an artist who performs Hip-Hop, Grime, Soul, Reggae, World, (any form of) Electronic Music plus any genre related to these six musical families. This (we acknowledge subjective) judgement call on which artists qualify will be made by Judging Chairwoman Jackie P from Kemet FM and Nusic Founder Mark Del. Their frame of reference is ‘Would this song be played on Kemet FM and/or BBC 1Xtra?’.
This rule is not perfect, but it comes from a good place, aspiring to make sure FSN is open to all genres.
RAW TALENT
– We have two rules to ensure raw talent is recognised, and to ensure that FSN does not end up featuring purely artists who have already had the opportunity of playing either Splendour or the FSN Final.
– No more than two artists who have already played the Rock City FSN Final can make it through to the 2025 Final.
– No more than two artists who have already played Splendour (in previous years) can make it through to the Final. This means that should the Final Eight have three artists that have played Splendour before, the third would be replaced by the next artist that has not played Splendour previously. To be direct with you this rule has become a little less clear cut since Splendour have grown the ‘Splendour Fringe’ side of things. So to be clear, we define playing Splendour as playing one of the three classic official stages – Main, Confetti & Courtyard (this year rebranded to Bodega)
WHO CANNOT ENTER?
– Those who have won / headlined any previous NUSIC ‘musician helping event’. For the avoidance of doubt this means KAP, K.JI, EM, ALT BLK ERA, BETSEY, REMY, THE DANDYLIONS, BROTHERHOOD, SUPER FURNITURE, SUSPECT ALIBI, JOY MUMFORD, THE GORGEOUS CHANS, THE AFTERDARK MOVEMENT, KAPPA GAMMA, KAGOULE, THE MONEY, LONG DEAD SIGNAL, DOG IS DEAD, FRONTIERS and THE TURF. Previous runners-up and Finalists CAN enter.
- Any Nottingham artist ALREADY announced on the bill for THIS year’s Splendour (on either day).
- Musicians who are unable to perform at least three original tracks live in the final. To clarify the minimum requirement for playing live is a live vocal + one live instrument.
- Artists who only play covers, no covers are allowed to be entered or performed, FSN (and Nusic generally) is all about encouraging original song writing.
Grey Area/s – What if you are a new artist that includes members who used to be in one of the artists listed in ‘Group One’? This is where it gets reeaaalllll complicated. It wouldn’t be fair to have pretty much the same artist get to play that main stage again would it? But also it wouldn’t be fair for a band of six to be excluded because one of them played triangle as a session musician back in 2016. So. If your new artist contains the same humans as before, you cannot enter. If your new artist has two or more members of an artist listed in ‘Group One’ it must be at least four years since your old act got through. If you are the only member of a ‘Group One’ artist, in your new artist, and there are at least three of you in total, you may enter now. Unless you are the lead singer / front person, in which case again it must be four years since your ‘Group One’ artist made it. Sorry singers, but you are the key distinguisher of any artist. Sometimes there are downsides to being the star, but hey, you get all the freebies..
CAN PEOPLE WHO WORK WITH/ FOR YOU ENTER?
* After some thought on this one, ish. We have a large number of volunteers from the Nottinghamshire scene who help and support us in helping you, many are musicians themselves. Not letting them enter would effectively ‘punish’ them for helping out, so we will let them. Whilst also declaring any potential internal conflicts of interest so that things are transparent. It’s worth remembering that none of the Nusic team vote in the Final. Any current volunteer from the Nusic team who enters FSN will be asked to take time out from Nusic for the duration of their time in FSN.
* Anyone who actually works for Nusic, can not enter FSN. Neither can any artists they manage.
2025 FSN Transparency Declarations (This will be updated weekly) =
* No artists have yet entered this year, that are related, living with or in love with current members of the Nusic Team.
CLARIFY YOUR DEFINITION/S OF ‘NOTTINGHAMNESS’ PLEASE?
* Check FAQ11 in our #NusicFAQs: nusic.org.uk/faq
By entering #FSN2025 you agree to accept all the above.
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