Northampton venue awarded Music Venue Trust grant to install new flooring

A music venue in Northampton has received a grant from the Music Venue Trust to help pay for new safe flooring.

Escape, in Adelaide Place, has received £3,950 from the MVT’s Pipeline Investment Fund as part of the charity’s fourth round of grants for UK grassroots music venues.

Owner Dan Kituno said: “The floor and the main entrance of our venue is in desperate need for new safety flooring as it has become very dangerous when it rains.

“There is no proper flooring for people to dry their shoes on and as result it extends the water into the main areas inside.

“This has led to reputation damage due to the worn out and smelly interior and in the last six months our venue booking enquiries have gone down by 60 per cent compared to this time last year.

“Thanks to Music Venue Trust's Pipeline Investment Fund, we have help to afford improving the interior design and making the venue safe, thus reducing the risk of slips and falls and potential insurance claims while also attracting the right promoters and public to buy tickets to attend our shows thus supporting grass roots music.”

The Pipeline Investment Fund, established in 2022, is primarily funded by ticket sales of MVT’s recent ‘Revive Live’ programme of gigs around the UK, a hugely successful partnership with The National Lottery.

To date, £165,000 worth of grants have been awarded to 38 Grassroots Music Venues since December.

This fourth round of payments sees a total sum of £97,516.97 awarded to a further 23 venues across the country.

Small scale grant applications, up to £5,000, were invited from UK based grassroots music venues to support small scale capital projects to improve lights, sound, access, ventilation and minor building alterations as well as staff training, workforce diversification, succession planning, skills development and strengthening community ties.

Mark Davyd, CEO of the Music Venue Trust said: “This fourth round of the Pipeline Investment Fund once again demonstrates how much difference small amounts of money, wisely invested, can make for grassroots music venues.

“With grassroots music venues facing extraordinary challenges right now, Music Venue Trust is determined to keep pressing the music industry and government to support this fund and ensure music communities right across the country can continue to access the very best in live music.”

The fund prioritises support for organisations who may have been excluded from other available funding and was open to all venue operators and organisations that meet any of the three definitions of a grassroots music space which are available on the charity’s website.

In January, the Music Venue Trust released its 2022 Annual Report, which was launched at a reception for MPs at The House of Commons.

The report detailed the immense contribution of grassroots music venues to the UK economy and the current threat they face as a result of the cost-of-living crisis and ongoing post-covid recovery.

The MVT is calling on the government to review the VAT on ticket sales that is currently limiting profitability and crushing a sector responsible for nurturing new, upcoming talent in the UK.

The report also outlines plans to ensure all new arenas opening in the UK contribute to the wider music eco-system by investing a percentage of every ticket sale into grassroots venues.

Last month Enter Shikari announced that £1 from every ticket sold for their first ever arena tour would go to MVT to support the Pipeline Investment Fund.

The Music Venue Trust was created in January 2014 to help protect, secure and improve the UK live music network by working to securing the long-term future of grassroots music venues.

The Music Venue Trust is still seeking donations, particularly from the wider music industry, to maintain and expand the Pipeline Investment Fund and make it a permanent source of support for grassroots music venues.

For more information, email [email protected] for details of how this work can be supported.