Music Venue Trust warn that live music sector will lose £36 million from lockdown exit delay

Last night (14 June) the UK Prime Minister announced a four week delay to the next stage of easing coronavirus restrictions in England, meaning live music venues have to wait another month to be able to host full capacity shows.

The announcement has led to another wave of show cancellations after the original lockdown easing date of 21 June was pushed back until 19 July, and the Music Venue Trust has issued a warning to the UK government, highlighting that the decision is "obviously a crippling blow to the sector", and will see the sector lose £36 million.

Music Venue Trust wrote, "Today’s announcement of a delay to the reopening at full capacity of Grassroots Music Venues is obviously a crippling blow to the sector. Over 4000 shows will be cancelled, losing tens of thousands of people, many of them unable to earn for over 15 months, the chance to get back to work. Huge amounts of work will need to go into rescheduling, cancellations, rebooking, refunds and managing customers, staff and artists. The delay will cost the sector £36 million, adding to the mounting pile of debt which this crisis has created."

After adding that the UK government is already aware of the impact of the delay through conversations with Music Venue Trust, they highlighted the need for an immediate distribution of the third round of the Cultural Recovery Fund, writing, "The government should immediately announce how that fund will be distributed, ensuring that it is done so swiftly and without the delays and bureaucracy that has beset previous rounds of this fund. Many venue operators have still not received funding promised to them for the period April to June, a situation we must not repeat to tackle this new delay."

Music Venue Trust continued, "We note that live music events were a unique focus of the government funded and led Events Research Programme. The evidence from the test events that took place during it have not been released. The government should immediately release that data and demonstrate how these test events indicated that live music is a unique contributing factor to the spread of the virus which cannot be managed in any other way than to effectively ban it. If, as we believe, the data does not provide that causality link, the government must explain on what basis it is making decisions on restrictions of live music."

Towards the end of the statement, Music Venue Trust added, "The continued restrictions to culture are a serious blow to the grassroots music venue sector, with potential damage to hundreds of businesses, thousands of staff and tens of thousands of workers. The government should immediately recognise the risk of serious harm being done to people’s lives, business, jobs and livelihoods and respond with swift, decisive action. The clock is ticking. Don’t fail now."

Government Announcement on Reopening:
Our Response:
WATCH: https://t.co/Rjq0LlLMS7
READ: https://t.co/lbW4SKawxL

FAO @OliverDowden @BorisJohnson @RishiSunak

The clock is ticking. Don't Fail Now.

Pls RT

— Music Venue Trust (@musicvenuetrust) June 14, 2021