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The announcement this morning of a £2.25 million Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund for GMVs in England (https://musicvenuetrust.com/England
- The Emergency GMV Fund opens today at midday and closes on 3 August. This pot of money is specifically for GMVs which need an urgent injection of cash to pay landlords and other creditors to tide them over until 30 September. Applications for up to £80K will be accepted but ACE are hoping that venues will apply for small amounts (only what they really need) so as many GMVs as possible can be helped.
- The Cultural Recovery Fund is the bigger one which will be launched next week and will accept applications for longer term support needed to weather the crisis.
- Venues can apply to both of these funds plus the newly reopened Supporting Grassroots Live Music Fund (the ring fenced pot launched by ACE last year).
- All funds are being administered by ACE for England but MVT’s work is referenced throughout, they even link to our GMV definition in the guidance for the Emergency GMV Fund.
- Read the quotes in the DCMS press release ( https://musicvenuetrust.com/
2020/07/grassroots-music- venues-to-be-saved-by- government-cash/) – even Oliver Dowden and Darren Henley are now using MVT’s wording!
Scotland
- Two weeks ago Scottish Government Economy Minister Fiona Hyslop announced a £2.2 million fund for GMVs in Scotland (https://musicvenuetrust.com/
2020/07/music-venue-trust- welcomes-2-2-million-fund- from-scottish-government-for- grassroots-music-venues/) - This money will be administered by Creative Scotland. This week we have been working with CS on the criteria for the fund which we hope will be launched soon. The funding will cover financial needs up until the end of October.
- As in England, there will be a longer-term cultural fund to which GMVs can also apply.
Wales
- There should be an announcement from Welsh Government next week about their cultural funding. For venues this will be administered by Creative Wales who already have a strong track record in financial support for GMVs.
- We understand that in Wales too there are likely to be 2 pots of funding – emergency funding and then longer term.
Northern Ireland
- Early indications are that work is being done on funding for which GMVs will be eligible – the concern is when that funding may become available so we will continue to push on this.
MVT’s Crisis Fund
In the context of these funds we can see that our pot of money is going to be needed for any venues which fall through the gaps. Our plan is to encourage any venue turned down for funding via ACE, Creative Scotland, Creative Wales etc. to send us their application to see if we can help. Obviously we will apply our existing levels of scrutiny to any allocation of money but having the crisis fund means that we have a back up plan so we will continue with #saveourvenues for now.
Well, on the surface at least I’ve gotta give the Tories credit where it’s due on this one. Maybe it ain’t enough but at least it’s a start. Just hope nobody takes the piss applying for more than they need thereby depriving others.. ..