The Music Venues Trust have released a report detailing the struggles that artists and grassroots music venues have been facing across the year of 2023. The report which features information regarding tour, venue, and ticket expenditure figures unveils a shocking new look into the financial hardships that Grassroots venues have experienced over 2023. The Music Venues Trust (MVT) reported that artists are playing 11 shows on an average tour of the Grassroots circuit (2023), a drastic change from the average 22 shows in 1994.
Key threats to venues noted in 2023 by MVT include: threats to venues from financial issues, threats to venues from noise complaints, threats to venues from redevelopment or planning applications. MVT also reported that financial stresses led 125 UK venues to abandon live music in 2023, with half of these shutting entirely. There are (in 2023) 835 Grassroots venues in the UK, a drop from 960 in the year 2022 – a loss of 125 live music venues and 36 festivals being cancelled.
MVT’s annual report found the Grassroots scene remains “significantly under-funded compared to other areas of culture,” despite contributing over £500m to the economy yearly and employing almost 30,000 people. The MVT also estimates that 35% of grassroots venues have closed over the past 20 years.
The MVT also reported that it’s members usually sell about 20 million tickets per year but that figure was expected to drop to 15 million over 2023.
The MVT has yet to release the data and report for 2024.