In 2023, 125 grassroots music venues in the UK closed for good. The places where so many great bands are play and sometimes start their ascent just simply having a hard time keeping their door open. This news is not new and the reason why events such as Independent Venue Week exist. That event which is the UK’s annual 7-day celebration of independent music & arts venues will be taking place from the 27th Jan to the 2nd Feb 2025.
I came across an article on the ITVX website today titled ‘Campaigners want £1 ticket contribution to save grassroots music venues‘. Obviously as someone who spends plenty of time in such establishments this caught my attention.
The article lists bands such as Adele, Oasis, Coldplay, Blur, Radiohead, Ed Sheeran and Amy Winehouse as artists that started at the grassroots level, My main local venue certainly entertained Coldplay and Oasis in their early days, the latter may have been 30 years ago but it is still remembered. A statistic I found shocking but sadly not surprising was that 43.8% of grassroots music venues are currently making a loss in 2024 and they are suffering a 23.4% decline in ticket sales compared to last year. In that same year, rent has increased by 37% on average and their energy bills have gone up by around 240%, they need to plug things in so this cant be curbed.
Simply put its is getting more expensive for these venues to put on shows and due to rising fuel costs and accommodation costs it is becoming more expensive for artists to tour the country. The article states this means there are fewer shows in general. This is do not see as the choices and number of venues here in the south are still as good as they have ever been, or so I thought.
“That’s why the Music Venue Trust is calling for a ticket contribution, which would see £1 from every ticket sold for a major music event at an arena or stadium in the UK going into a fund that would be used to help grassroots venues stay afloat.”
So thats is the planThe £1 from each ticket that campaigners are calling for wouldn’t cost fans any more, according to the Music Venue Trust.
“It would be factored in as a show cost in the same way as a venue hire fee or insurance. So it could be incorporated in the current ticket prices rather than being added on.“
“That’s probably part of the sticking point, the owners of the biggest arenas and the stadiums can see it eating into their profits, which is why they aren’t keen on agreeing to the ticket contribution scheme…at least voluntarily.“
Take a read of the article, it does paint a worrying picture and I know its not that simple to fix. Pay it forward, pay it backward, the industry should help itself. If this problem persists the impact will be felt further up the chain eventually, not just from the venues but form the quality of artsists without that initial playground to hone their craft.
I personally think this is a great idea, i’d even happily pay a pound extra on a ticket price if I could get a guarantee that my pund got to where it was needed. But they are not trying to pass it onto us, the fans which is where as stated above the problem lies, basically its down to spreadsheets and profits. Is that shortsighted by the larger venues? Should they be looking after their younger siblings?
“If you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves.”
The grassroots venues are the pennies . . . thoughts?
