At-risk English music venues have become the first recipients of the £1.57bn government culture recovery fund. Historic sites including the London Troubadour and the Liverpool Jacaranda are among the 135 venues to benefit from the emergency grassroots venues fund announced by culture secretary Oliver Dowden last month.
The fund was increased from a planned £2.25m to £3.36m. Four companies received the maximum grant of £80,000, including London’s Stony Valley Ltd, owned by celebrity nightclub proprietor Howard Spooner. Manchester venues Gorilla and the Deaf Institute, both recently saved from entering administration by venue operator Tokyo Industries, received £31,000 and £15,000 respectively.
In a statement, Dowden said: “This government is here for culture and these grants today show we are determined to help our exceptional music industry weather the Covid storm and come back stronger. Grassroots music venues are where the magic starts and these emergency grants from our £1.57bn fund will ensure these music venues survive to create the Adeles and Ed Sheerans of the future.”
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are managing their own emergency funding initiatives, totalling £188m across the arts.
Music Venue Trust CEO Mark Davyd welcomed the news, saying that the accelerated funding “creates a real breathing space for under-pressure venues”.
As of 14 August, socially distanced indoor performances are permitted. Dowden encouraged music fans to support music and cultural events as part of a “collective effort to help the things we love through Covid”.
Yet few venues have felt able to reopen. MVT’s Davyd has warned that “only around 100 of the country’s 900 small music venues would be able to operate under the current restrictions”.
An MVT survey in June found that even for venues that could feasibly open with social distancing measures, 96% said it would be financially harmful to do so because of the costs outweighing the number of people they could accommodate. Also in June, it was found that only 36% of the public felt it would be safe to attend a concert at that point.
