Music Venue Trust

For those that know what I do, you'll know that this one is close to home. 

As the Glastonbury lineup announces today, we get to see the hundreds of musicians fortunate enough to play the biggest live music event globally. 

However, every one of those artists likely began their career playing small venues somewhere close to home. The Beatles had the famous Cavern Club in Liverpool; Oasis had the Boardwalk Club in Manchester; Arctic Monkeys had the Leadmill in Sheffield. The list goes on. 

And yet the original Cavern Club is closed, as is the Boardwalk Club, and the Leadmill is under threat of closure right now.

According to the Music Venue Trust, in the past two years almost 150 venues have closed in the UK. On average, venues operated on a profit margin of just 0.48% with 43.8% of them reporting a loss in the last 12 months.

The reasons for this are numerous: funding to the live arts has been trimmed down, the cost of running venues has increased, and the spending power of consumers has decreased.

Music Venue Trust help to find emergency funding for venues and work with them to secure freehold ownership and other means to ensure financial security. They also campaign heavily for greater funding, citing the fact that the live music industry makes more money than ever whilst so little trickles back down to where it began.

In 2024, they helped secure the freeholds for five different venues as well as responding to over 200 emergency funding claims, an increase of 19% from the previous year.

So remember when you're watching Glastonbury performances that none of it would be possible without the little venues who give people their first shot on stage!