#SAVEOURVENUES CAMPAIGN RAISES OVER 1M
“We must keep the music alive!”
A campaign launched to support grassroots music venues during lockdown has so far saved 140 independent venues from closure. The #saveourvenues crisis fund was launched by the charity @musicvenuetrust three weeks ago, to financially support over 500 independent music venues which have been forced to close indefinitely during lockdown.
The fund recently passed the £1million milestone following six figure pledges from Beggars Group, Amazon Music/The BPI, The Mayor of London and several other companies, helping to get 140 venues taken off the ‘critical list.’ The Music Venue Trust (MVT) are now asking for continued donations and governmental intervention to help secure permanent protection for the venues.
Toni Coe-Brooker, one of the campaign coordinators, said Government support for the sector in the form of grants, relief and furlough has addressed 72% of the challenges faced in this first phase of the crisis, and they aim to tackle the remaining 28% with their campaign - she put their success so far down to “the generosity of artists and the local communities.”
Coe-Brooker runs the Green Door Store in Brighton as well as coordinating the campaign. She said: “I can confidently say with either hat that the response has been overwhelming,” and that it has “shown us how valued and missed these spaces are, as well as how important they are in bringing their community together.”
She added: “A lot of people are feeling lost right now, without a space they can go to meet like minded people. So it's important that we act and prevent venues from closing, not just for musicians but for the people that regularly use them.”
Sam Feeley, a Live Promoter for the Leadmill in Sheffield, said the venue has been a member of the MVT for years and their support at this time has been “completely invaluable,” allowing them to continue paying essential overheads and staff wages so they can “return where we left off before all this.” He said staff were loving the project, which has allowed them to continue engaging with gig-goers while closed, by using live streams as “a way to generate some funds while also getting artists involved.”
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Fran Healey, General Manager of The Stoller Hall in Manchester, said that by ensuring Stoller Hall can afford to keep a low level of staffing during lockdown, the campaign is allowing them to continue engaging with audiences, planning a programme for reopening, and hopefully even to provide socially distant spaces “for artists to rehearse individually and together, where they can record, and where they can create broadcasts for people to enjoy at home.” She said:
“Our way of life has been broken, for now, but we must keep the music alive!”
Donations can be made to the crowdfunding page here, and you can choose whether to donate to the national fund or an independent venue of your choice.
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