UK government confirm final round of funding for live music sector will be "announced shortly"

Yesterday (14 June) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the announcement that the final lockdown restrictions will not be eased for another four weeks, pushing back from the original date of 21 June until 19 July.

The announcement has put live music venues at further risk. In a statement uploaded yesterday (14 June), Music Venue Trust outlined that over "4000 shows will be cancelled", and the live music sector is expected to lose around £36 million due to the delay.

NME reports today (15 June) that a Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson has confirmed that the next round of funding will be "announced shortly". The spokesperson said, "We understand a delay to full reopening is challenging for live events, and we will be helping our creative industries through it. We have made £2 billion available through the biggest arts funding package in history and the final funding round of £300million will be announced shortly. Clubs and venues have also benefited from restart grants worth £18,000 each, and there’s nearly £1 billion available in further discretionary grants local authorities still have to pay out."

They added, "The furlough scheme and VAT cut is in place until September and eligible businesses will also continue to benefit from business rates relief of 75 per cent over the year."

Music Venue Trust highlighted in yesterday's statement that "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."