Music Venue Trust, the charity which protects, secures and improves the UK’s grassroots music venues has launched #saveourvenues to draw together fundraising activity aimed at preventing the permanent closure of these vital venues due to COVID-19.
There are 556 venues at risk of closure, so this campaign aims to bring together artists who want to help, with the venues they love, and provide an easy way for music fans to financially support the resultant live streams.
The idea behind #saveourvenues is to secure grassroots music venues one by one, as Frank Turner has been doing with his Independent Venue Love series of concerts.
The website provides simple tools for artists who would like to get involved. A map of venues shows which UK venues are keen to be partnered – they each have a fundraising page already in place to make it easy for music fans to donate. As events are organised they will be listed and streamed on the website and on the venue’s and artist’s social media platforms. As each venue target is reached, any money raised above this will go into the central pot which Music Venue Trust will use to help every venue across its network.
This is a practical way to help venues individually and as a venue community. We encourage every visitor to the website to follow the instructions that fit them: artist, venue or fan.