Music Venue Trust announces ‘traffic light’ campaign to save grassroots venues still in crisis

The Music Venue Trust (MVT), the organisation which represents hundreds of UK grassroots music venues (GMVs), has this week announced a new phase of its successful #saveourvenues campaign, which will be focused on securing the future of 30 venues which were ineligible to receive funding from (or which were wholly or partially unsuccessful in their application to), the recent government-backed Cultural Recovery Fund.

MVT says these GMVs play “a crucial role in the development of British music, nurturing local talent, providing a platform for artists to build their careers and develop their music and their performance skills. These venues also play a vital role in the cultural and economic vibrancy of any village, town or city.”

The new ‘Traffic Light’ campaign will highlight venues considered safe until 31 March 2020 (Green – 353 venues); those at risk of closure between now and 31 March without additional support (Amber- 273 venues); and those in imminent danger of permanent closure (Red- 30 venues). Among the 30 are Hull’s Beehive Jazz Cafe, Venue 38 in Ayr, The Lexington in London’s King’s Cross and Croydon’s Alchemy Bar. All list of the 30 can be found HERE

A range of targeted activity under the #saveourvenues banner has been announced, based around combined efforts by audiences, locals, councils and the creative community to prevent the permanent closure of these remaining GMVs. MVT is also urging supporters to write to their local MP, council, local charities, and anyone else they can think of to demand action to prevent them being closed for good.

Mark Davyd, MVT’s CEO said: “What the #saveourvenues campaign has achieved during the last eight months is truly remarkable - we have raised over £3m in donations and have unlocked over £80m in government assistance to help stave off the imminent closure of over 400 grassroots music venues. We are now focusing exclusively on those 30 remaining venues which face immediate permanent closure.  If people want these local venues to still be there when this is over there is a very clear call to action:  choose a venue, get donating, get writing, get calling, get organised.  Save them all.”

A new crowdfunding initiative powered by Crowdfunder has been launched to secure the future of these 30 GMVs. By visiting a single landing page at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/save-our-venues-red-list people can choose an individual venue to donate to. If an individual target is reached by a particular venue the surplus donations will go towards supporting other venues in crisis.