Northampton music venue to hold ‘crunch point’ meeting in bid for survival
Live music venue and community creative hub The Lab is appealing for volunteers to attend a ‘crunch point’ meeting next month in a bid to help secure its future.
The venue in Charles Street, The Mounts, recently revealed they are experiencing ‘financial difficulty’ and face an uncertain future if changes are not made.
In a statement posted on The Lab’s Facebook page, venue chairman Nathan Doyle, speaking on behalf of The Lab’s committee group, said: “The Lab is currently experiencing financial difficulty with the pressure of relentless VAT bills to HMRC.
“Unfortunately, if we can’t gather together enough energy and enthusiasm from our community, we are at a high risk of being lost, which will leave a big hole in the community.”
The Lab has been a regular on the gig circuit for many years, regularly giving local acts somewhere to perform as well as attracting national touring bands.
It also runs a café selling food and Sunday lunch and holds other community events.
The meeting is due to take place from 7pm on Thursday, October 3, and will aim to put a plan in place to address the debt and also ensure The Lab has enough volunteers to help keep it running.
Mr Doyle added: “We are experiencing a severe deficit of active members on the committee.
“Our next steps are to establish how much support we really have among members and the community.
“We are calling a ‘crunch point’ meeting. We would like to see 100 concerned and enthusiastic faces at this meeting.
“If the support is there, we can start to address the debt, revitalise the building and appoint people to positions, including re-introducing a sufficient amount of volunteers, so we can really establish a sustainable business model."
Visit www.fb.com/thelabnorthampton