Over 1000 Venues, Festivals, And Arts Spaces Awarded CRF Funding

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Over 1000 music venues, festivals, arts spaces, and culture organisations in England have been awarded part of the £257 million grant in the first wave of the Cultural Recovery Fund.

The £257 million makes up the largest chunk of the governments £1.57 billion bailout fund to date, helping venues and cultural spaces which have been closed due to the coronavirus restrictions. 89% of applications from England’s grassroots venue sector have been successful, making less than 20 still in danger. 71% of Association of Independent Festival’s applications have also been successful.

The grant is hoped to help the live spaces survive until Covid restrictions have been eased. Funding for venues in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are to follow in the coming weeks.

Some notable successful applicants to receive part of the £257 million included.

• £908,004 – DHP Family (Promoters and Owners of The Garage, Rock City, and more)
• £525,000 – Liverpool’s Cavern Club
• £300,000 – The Clapham Grand
• £250,000 – The Camden Assembly
• £235,564 – Islington Assembly Hall
• £225,000 – New Cross Inn
• £206,974 – Camden’s Electric Ballroom
• £175,981 – Slam Dunk

You can see the full list here.

Talking to NME, Music Venue Trust CEO Davyd said “There’s so much good news out there, with dozens and dozens of key venues now guaranteed to survive through to April, That’s an absolute game-changer. It’s come about three or four weeks past people’s tolerance levels, but it’s incredibly positive. That’s over 200 venues funded just in the first round, and we’ve got the opportunity to save more in the second round.”

“We’ve got the Welsh funding announcement coming later this week or early next, some Scottish money has already gone out with more to come, so the main pressure falls on Scotland and Northern Ireland now to see what they do.”

Going on to discuss that at the end of last month most venues were in red alert, “Two weeks ago we were on Red Alert — now we can honestly downgrade that because it’s only critical for a very small number of venues now, We’re going to take a little bit of time to understand what they need to get them through to April. The number of venues that we need to do that for is tiny — it’s less than 20 that are in urgent danger. It sounds like a lot, but it’s far more manageable to the 400-500 that we were faced with back in March.”

“In March we decided that we’d save every grassroots venue until they could open safely. In October, we’re now confident that with the support of the public and the whole sector pulling together, we may achieve that.”

It’s good to see so many venues, festivals, and art’s spaces being helped along over these uncertain times, however many workers form the live music industry have been made redundant as the government aren’t providing anymore support for workers after the furlough ends at the end of the month.