The Music Venue Trust has teamed up with social media platform WeAre8, which is sponsoring five gigs at independent music venues around the UK between now and the end of May 2025.
The partnership comes amid dire warnings about the future of grassroots venues in the UK. In January, a damning report found that almost a quarter of MVT member venues (810) face a threat of permanent closure.
Meanwhile, one grassroots venue closed its doors every two weeks in 2024, MVT figures found, while a further 80 had stopped hosting live music events and over 200 had been forced to seek emergency help.
The partnership between the MVT and WeAre8 aims to promote both local artists and the venues they’re performing at, in the wake of a separate report that found 84 per cent of UK independent artists cannot afford to tour this year.
WeAre8 is supporting the following venues: Aatma in Manchester, Little Buildings in Newcastle, The Asylum in Newcastle and The Fox & Newt in Leeds.
The Music Venue Trust has also been listed in WeAre8’s “wallet”, which means that users can choose to send funds generated from adverts to the organisation.
The platform is structured so that money from advertisers is shared with people, publishers, non-profits and planet projects.
Laura Chase, UK managing director of WeAre8, said: “WeAre8 has created a safe and positive place for us all to connect, share and create. We want to support the creative industries, the grassroots venues and the smaller bands and artists – who are being lost to algorithms on other social platforms – and not being recognised or rewarded for their talent and content.
“Our mission is to help elevate and support the amazing artists we have in the UK and help them find a viable economic path forward. Essential to this is supporting independent music venues, which the Music Venue Trust has ploughed passion and resources into protecting and promoting over the last ten plus years. By including Music Venue Trust in our wallet, we’re also hoping music lovers will support the charity by helping to fund its fantastic work.”
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Denzil Thomas, partnership manager of Music Venues Trust, said: “There are so many amazing venues up and down the UK that have played a crucial role in the development of British music over the last 40 years; nurturing local talent and providing a platform for artists to build their careers and develop their music and their performance skills. Yet they’re battling each week to stay alive. We believe our partnership with WeAre8 can help keep these special places alive.”
