VENUES RECEIVE £5M FUNDING BOOST

Grassroots music venues across the U.K. have received a £5m funding boost from the government that will give 400 such rooms approximately £12.5k each over a two-year period.

Secretary of State for Culture Lucy Frazer announced the fund, which will be administered by Arts Council England. It aims to address a 16.9% drop in shows at grassroots venues in the U.K. in 2022 as a result of rising costs related to energy bills, rent and staffing.

The Music Venue Trust says that a lack of funding to meet the increasing financial demands of touring have led to a perfect storm for grassroots artists, with not just the number of tours cut but also the number of dates per tour significantly declining in the last 10 years.

“There is a well-documented and evidenced crisis at the grassroots level,” said MVT Live Projects Coordinator Rebecca Walker. “We have new and emerging artists who want to tour, venues who are desperate to host them and audiences that want to see them, but the financial obstacles have simply become too great. With this additional £5m we are going to be able to work with the sector to get artists back out across the country, producing thousands of shows that simply wouldn’t be able to take place without this funding.”

Mark Davyd, CEO and founder of the MVT, called for the music industry to “step up, take responsibility and match this government action with its own positive response," continuing, "At the top level, we are enjoying the greatest-ever summer of live music in the U.K. We need to ensure that grassroots music venues share in that financial success, and that can be achieved simply and effectively through a contribution from every ticket sold at every arena and stadium event.”