Music Venue Trust launches 'Save Our Venues' campaign
Music Venue Trust (MVT) have launched a new campaign, ‘Save Our Venues’, in a bid to stave off the continued economic threat to over 500 grassroots music venues throughout the UK.
The MVT are following up the Grassroots Music Venues Crisis fund they established last month — which has gone on to raise over £182,000 — with the initiative, with the fund now being renamed the #SaveOurVenues Fund.
The ‘Save Our Venues’ campaign is hoping to reach artists, music fans and the wider music industry in order to help save the hundreds of grassroots music venues in the UK. Artists are being encouraged to head to the campaign’s website if they wish to help save a venue currently in crisis, where they can access “the tools and guidance to perform an ‘at home’ gig in support of that particular venue”.
Over 556 venues are at risk, and each venue will have their own crowd funding page on the site “with a clear target of the funds it needs to raise to stay afloat throughout this difficult period”. If a target is met, then any excess revenue will go to the overall #SaveOurVenues Fund to help the wider grassroots music venue community.
Among the main drivers of this initiative is Frank Turner, who has been busy fundraising for a number of grassroots venues since the coronavirus lockdown was imposed last month.
“The UK live music industry is staring into the abyss right now,” Turner said in a statement. “I’m not able to save the whole thing on my own, but I decided to do a series of livestream shows to raise money for specific independent venues that I know and love, and that are in serious risk of disappearing right now.
“The success of these shows demonstrated the love that exists between music fans and their favourite grassroots music venues so the #SaveOurVenues campaign is a brilliant way of building on that and hopefully giving artists and music fans a chance to get involved and play a big part in helping them survive.”
Music fans are being encouraged to show their support for grassroots venues by engaging with the #SaveOurVenues campaign by accessing upcoming live streams and donating to their local venue’s crowd funding page.
The wider music industry is also being encouraged to donate to the main #SaveOurVenues fund, and those wishing to donate in excess of £1000 are being asked to contact MVT founder and CEO Mark Davyd directly ([email protected]).
“We have received some magnificent support so far from music companies, but we need a lot more to step up and help save this essential part of the music eco-system,” Davyd said in a statement.
“We cannot stress enough how critical it is that the music industry supports the #SaveOurVenues campaign as without them over 500 of the UK’s grassroots music venues could go out of business, never to return, in the coming months. Please help us.”
