Music Venue Trust (MVT), which represents hundreds of UK grassroots music venues (GMVs), has announced a new phase of its hugely successful #saveourvenues campaign, which will be focused on securing the future of 30 venues who were ineligible to receive funding from, or wholly or partially unsuccessful in their application to, the recent government backed Cultural Recovery Fund.

These grassroots venues play a crucial role in the development of British music, nurturing local talent, providing a platform for artists to build their careers and develop their music and their performance skills. These venues also play a vital role in the cultural and economic vibrancy of any village, town or city.

This new ‘Traffic Light’ campaign will highlight venues considered safe until 31 March (Green – 353 venues), those at risk of closure between now and 31 March without additional support (Amber – 273 venues) and those in imminent danger of permanent closure (Red – 30 venues). See national map here.

A range of targeted activity under the #saveourvenues banner has been announced, based around a combined effort by audiences, local communities, local councils and the creative community to prevent the permanent closure of these remaining GMVs. MVT are now urging everyone who cares about these venues to write to their local MP, council, local charities, and anyone else they can think of to demand action to prevent them being closed for good.

Mark Davyd, CEO of Music Venue Trust, said, “What the #saveourvenues campaign has achieved during the last eight months is truly remarkable. Thanks to the efforts of music fans, local communities and the wider music sector we have raised over £3m in donations and have unlocked over £80m in government assistance to help stave off the imminent closure of over 400 grassroots music venues. We are now focusing exclusively on those 30 remaining venues which face immediate permanent closure.  If people want these local venues to still be there when this is over there is a very clear call to action:  choose a venue, get donating, get writing, get calling, get organised. Save them all. Reopen Every Venue Safely.”

A new crowdfunding initiative powered by Crowdfunder has been launched to secure the future of these 30 GMVs. By visiting a single landing page at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/save-our-venues-red-list people can choose an individual venue to donate to. If an individual target is reached by a particular venue the surplus donations will go towards supporting other venues in crisis.

As part of these crowdfunding efforts there will also be a new range of merchandise exclusively available to support this campaign and available for delivery by Christmas. Every item bought directly supports a venue, with MVT paying the costs of printing, packing and delivery.