MVT Announces $85k Funding to 14 Grassroots Music Venues

MVT music venues UK grassroots funding

Photo Credit: Benjamin Davies

Music Venue Trust announces a further £70k funding to an additional 14 UK grassroots music venues.

Music Venue Trust (MVT) started strong in 2023 with a further 14 recipients of its Pipeline Investment Fund, which provides grants for UK grassroots music venues. MVT announced an additional £70k ($85k) distributed in the second round of recipients for its funding initiative.

Last year, the Pipeline Investment Fund was launched with the support of members of the Music Venues Alliance. It was funded primarily by donations from ticket sales of MVT’s “Revive Live” performances across the UK in partnership with The National Lottery. 

Small-scale (up to £5k) grant applications were invited from UK-based grassroots music venues to support two key areas: small-scale capital projects such as sound, lights, access, and ventilation, and staff/training initiatives like skills development and workforce diversification. Following the 11 venues that received £40k from the inaugural round of payments in December, an additional 14 have now been awarded nearly £70k to help fund a range of needs.

The fund prioritizes support for organizations that may have been excluded from other available funding and is open to all venue operators and organizations that meet the definition of a “Grassroots Music Space.” MVT is still actively seeking further donations from the wider music industry, in particular, to maintain and expand the Pipeline Investment Fund and make it a permanent source of support for grassroots music venues.

“Distributing almost £70,000 for 14 grassroots music venues is a really positive way to start 2023 and is further proof that our Pipeline Investment Fund can make a real difference to individual venues,” says Mark Davyd, CEO of Music Venue Trust. 

“It is really important, however, that we don’t get complacent; this initiative has had a real impact, but it is only the start of what we need long-term. We still need the wider industry to back us with real financial commitments so that we protect the fabric and integrity of the grassroots venue sector, which continues to face serious challenges on an ever-increasing number of fronts.”

The new recipient music venues are:

  • Cloak and Dagger in Bristol
  • Coda in Colchester
  • Faith In Strangers in Cliftonville
  • Fiddlers Elbow in London
  • Fighting Cocks in London
  • Folklore Rooms in Brighton
  • Hot Box Live in Chelmsford
  • Meraki in Liverpool
  • Patriot Home of Rock in Crumlin
  • Suburbia in Southampton
  • The Lughole in Sheffield
  • The Tin Music & Arts in Coventry
  • Westgate Hotel in Newport
  • Sally Browns in Bradford

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