Music Venue Trust has announced that as a result of the #SaveOurVenues campaign, 140 grassroots music venues has been removed from its ‘critical’ list.
The campaign was initiated in response to the continued economic threat to over 500 grassroots music venues throughout the UK.
Through donations from music fans, music industry companies and other organisations, #SaveOurVenues has so far raised £1.5m.
In addition to charitable donations, there have been important interventions from public bodies such as The London Mayor’s Office, Creative Wales and Arts Council England.
The work done by the MVT crisis intervention team in providing legal and planning advice, liaising with landlords and helping venues navigate through the complex bureaucratic process to access help, has also been instrumental during this campaign.
Music Venue Trust are clear, however, that this positive progress does not mean that these venues are out of the woods.
Mark Davyd, founder and chief executive, MVT, said: ‘The fact we have managed to remove 140 grassroots music venues off of our critical list in the last three weeks is, of course, a cause for celebration but we are not complacent as this is only a relatively short-term fix.
'Whilst the immediate threat of closure for these venues has been halted they are still under real threat in the coming months as are over 400 others. This is a good start and we can’t emphasise how grateful we are to those music fans, music industry companies and public organisations who have supported the #SaveOurVenues campaign so far, but we cannot relax as we still have a mountain to climb to secure the long-term future of this sector. We still desperately need more music industry companies to step up and help with donations alongside real action from government specifically around rent relief, more financial help and clearer guidance.’
Last week, Mark Davyd took us behind the scenes at Music Venue Trust to give a deeper insight into the work they do.
