Venues Day 2016 Gets New Headline Partner: UK Music

Music Venue Trust is delighted to announce UK Music as the new headline partner for Venues Day 2016 which will take place on Tuesday 18 October at The Roundhouse, London. UK Music will also be partnering Music Venue Trust on the upcoming April regional meetings in Manchester, Leicester and Bristol, with a similar event in Cardiff later in the spring.

Since the first Venues Day event in December 2014, awareness of the precarious position in which the UK's small independent venues find themselves has grown enormously. Music Venue Trust, the charity created to champion and protect the nation's grassroots music, continues to lead this work and is putting together this year's networking day for highlighting and discussing key issues around two themes: Localism & Community and The Music Industry.

Jo Dipple of UK Music said: “UK Music is proud to be the headline sponsor for Venues Day 2016. British Grassroots music venues are facing enormous pressures, some that threaten survival. These pressures might be applied to individual venues, but they require national policy and national action. UK Music campaigned with the Music Venue Trust and Musicians’ Union to successfully change Government law to protect established music venues from onerous inward planning activity. UK Music ran a census into the Bristol music economy. It showed that half the venues we assessed were directly threatened by planning, development or noise issues. Getting conditions in place that save venues under threat and encourages them to flourish is a priority for UK Music. The effect of leaving things to deteriorate does not bear thinking about. Music venues are necessary incubators for British music. We must act. And we must act now”.

Mark Davyd of MVT added: “We’re delighted to be working closely with UK Music in a number of areas protecting, securing and improving grassroots music venues. The recent success with the change to UK law on permitted development rights shows just what can be achieved by collaboration, and it’s great to have Jo and her team on board early with these events so we can ensure they make a genuine positive impact on the sector.”

Regional Meetings for Venues will take place in April, with support from UK Music and Arts Council England:

Weds 6 April Band on the Wall, Manchester

Weds 13 April The Cookie, Leicester

Thurs 14 April Exchange, Bristol

Delegate passes for these events are free to venues and can be obtained by contacting Beverley Whitrick at venuesday@gmail.com

Venues Day 2016 is the only national event aimed specifically at the people who run small to medium scale independent music venues. Venues Day 2015 took place the Ministry of Sound and saw 400 delegates networking with representatives from leading music industry businesses, cultural organisations and advisors on issues such as accessing finance, insurance, licensing and legal issues. The sold out event was 'headlined' by a heated debate featuring Ed Vaizey MP (Culture Minister), Michael Dugher MP (Shadow Secretary of State for Culture), Jo Dipple (UK Music), Joyce Wilson (Arts Council England) and Steve Lamacq (BBC 6 Music).

A full line up of panellists and partner organisations will be announced from May.

Venues Day 2016 is a one day event, running from 10.30am – 6.30pm. General delegate passes will go on sale from August.

Further event details and booking for all passes will be available from the MVT website http://www.musicvenuetrust.com/

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Music Venue Trust

Music Venue Trust, founded in 2014, is a registered charity that seeks to preserve, secure and improve the UK’s network of small to medium scale, mostly independently run, grassroots music venues. We have a long term plan to protect that live music network which includes, where necessary, taking into charitable ownership freehold properties so they can be removed from commercial pressures and leased back to passionate music professionals to continue their operation.

For further information please visit http://www.musicvenuetrust.com/

UK Music

UK Music is the umbrella body representing the collective interests of the UK’s commercial music industry, from songwriters and composers to artists and musicians, studio producers, music managers, music publishers, major and independent record labels, music licensing companies and the live music sector.

UK Music exists to represent the UK’s commercial music sector, to drive economic growth and promote the benefits of music to British society. The members of UK Music are AIM, BASCA, BPI, FAC, MMF, MPG, MPA, MU, PPL, PRS for Music and the UK Live Music Group.

For further information please visit http://www.ukmusic.org/