Music Venue Trust Announces Venues Day

29 October 2014 - Press release

UK's LIVE MUSIC CIRCUIT TO GATHER IN LONDON on TUESDAY 9 DECEMBER

Venues Day 2014 will take place at the Southbank Centre, London on Tuesday 9 December. It is the first national event specifically designed to celebrate small and medium scale independent live music venues across the UK, bringing together professionals from the sector to network, share ideas and views and plan the way forward.

 Venues Day is an initiative led by the Music Venue Trust, which was formed early in 2014 to speak up for the live music circuit in the UK; the so-called 'toilet circuit' that is the grassroots of the UK music scene. In recent years a number of key closures have put a dent in this circuit, and changes to legislation, tough trading conditions and the overall music economy have placed many of the venues on a knife-edge.

The Music Venue Trust has been looking for ways to address these issues, including campaigning very noticeably and successfully on noise and planning legislation with a campaign fronted by Frank Turner which has already attracted nearly 30,000 signatures from live music fans, provoking parliamentary questions and government responses. During that campaigning and discussions with politicians and key stakeholders, it became clear to the Trust that the sector was failing to be heard; key government initiatives were moving forward without a representative voice for small venues. Venues Day is an attempt to have a national conversation about what the cultural sector and the music industry can do together to ensure we continue to enjoy live music locally in the future.

More than 50 venues have already confirmed their attendance in the first week of registration, and the aim is to have at least 80 venues from across the country represented. Venues Day has three main panels, dealing with best practice, noise vs nuisance, and the final panel of the day, featuring contributions from UK Music, The Arts Council and two of the UK's most important agencies, which aims to push the conversation forward; "What Happens Next?": Everybody in the music industry recognises that these venues  have been the breeding ground for successive waves of musicians and artists that have gone on to create such a thriving UK music industry. Venues Day is a chance for the venues to speak directly to that industry about what it can do to support that work.

Venues Day is supported by Arts Council England and is presented by the Music Venue Trust in association with Independent Venue Week and the Southbank Centre.

Venue Booking for Venues Day is open by invitation now; if you are a venue manager, owner, booker or promoter, you can apply for a free delegate pass and assistance with travel costs by contacting musicvenuetrust@gmail.com. Registration for other industry bodies will open on 10 November. Full details will be available from the Music Venue Trust website at musicvenues.org.uk