24th February 2021
Live music industry umbrella group LIVE (Live music Industry Venues & Entertainment), which has been involved in initiatives including the #LetTheMusicPlay and #KeepVATat5 campaigns, has formally launched. Declaring itself “the voice of the UK’s live music industry”, LIVE is a federation of more than a dozen live music industry associations including the Association of Ind...
23rd February 2021
Speaking at the Association of Organisers Conference on Saturday, 20 February, UK Music Chief Executive Jamie Njoku-Goodwin outlined how festivals can play key role in the post-pandemic economic and cultural recovery but the right support was key, including a government-backed insurance scheme. Njoku-Goodwin said that as long as the festival industry is unable to operate viably, Government must...
22nd February 2021
On 22 February, the Prime Minister set out his road map for ending the lockdown. Of course, he didn’t say that festivals and big events could start again, but there was the tiniest glimmer of hope in his statement. He made quick reference to events but said the word “testing “on several occasions. The festival industry as we know it cannot handle testing at the gate of the ...
22nd February 2021
Following the prime minister’s announcement in the House of Commons today, 22 February, that major live events will not be able to return until 17 May, and it will be at least 21 June before full capacity shows can resume, the events industry has called on the Government to support impacted businesses and individuals during the downtime. “While it is good to get some clarity followi...
18th February 2021
Launch: 18th February Crux of the campaign: As you will be well aware, the live events industry has been hit incredibly hard by COVID and the associated lockdown and social distancing measures. As representatives of individuals and companies working in the live events supply chain, our campaign is focused on the fact that the government has frequently appeared blind to the impacts on the su...
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10th February 2021
UTA has signed Nathan Evans, the Scottish singer who found fame on TikTok for his rendition of the whaling ballad ‘Soon May the Wellerman Come’, for worldwide representation. Evans, a former postman who is credited with inspiring the unlikely social media craze around sea shanties, has held the no.2 spot in the UK charts for three weeks with the 220 Kid/Billen Ted remix of ‘We...
10th February 2021
The Department for Health and Social Care have announced that over 230 local authorities in England are now offering rapid Covid-19 testing. They have also launched a new postcode checker to help people who need to leave home for work find out if rapid Covid-19 testing is offered by their local authority or near their place of work. https://www.gov.uk/find-covid-19-lateral-flow-test-site...
9th February 2021
‘Building his legacy’: Drystone launch the Mick Peat Drystone Bursary. Following the sad loss of our dear friend and founding President Mick Peat, community arts enterprise Drystone are pleased to announce that "The Mick Peat Drystone Bursary" fund has been established in his memory. The crowdfunder is aiming to initially raise £2,500 to seed the bursary, which wi...
8th February 2021
Sustainable practises: A fine example from FolkEast In Suffolk we have a council backed organisation called the Suffolk Carbon Charter which is a great way to measure the progress we make each year. We were awarded the Silver Charter in 2014 and in 2018 we were promoted to Gold for showing an improvement each year. We set out from the start with FolkEast to have as lower carbon footprint ...
4th February 2021
Speaking at the DCMS Select Committee inquiry into the future of UK music festivals earlier this week it was great to hear that Rowan Cannon, Wild Rumpus confirm that her company’s two 5,000-capacity festivals could be staged even if social distancing measures had to be implemeted. Read the article here: https://accessaa.co.uk/festivals-as-safe-as-sainsburys/ To vie...
4th February 2021
#KeepVATat5 This has been one of the most difficult years ever for the live music industry, with a reduction of more than 80% in revenue across the industry. As one of the first industries to close and likely the last to reopen, the Cultural Recovery Fund was a lifeline for some businesses in our industry. Alongside the CRF was a promised reduction in the rate of VA...
1st February 2021
See and Hear UK MUSIC CEO fight our corner for festivals. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000ry1z/politics-live-01022021 (Starts around 20.56 mins in)...
31st January 2021
This is why we need H.M. Government backed insurance… https://www.iq-mag.net/2021/01/french-festivals-reschedule-new-lockdown-looms/#.YBa-aXmnzD5 It could happen here! #SupportFestivals #SupportEvents ...
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30th January 2021
HEARTS IN HARMONY: Derbyshire musicians unite WITH A CONCERT to support FOUR CAUSES Tickets go on sale on Valentine's Day for an online concert, raising money for four different organisations – all working together to share the love, and the music! The concert will be streamed from 6th July – which is International Kissing Day ! – and will feature nearly three hours of mu...
28th January 2021
January 2021 part 2 In my last blog to AFO on 12 January I thought I would be leaving it about a month before writing again. However, things are changing daily so I thought I would come to you a little early With now only three weeks to go to AFO Conference Saturday 20 February 2021, I strongly recommend that you get onto the AFO website at festivalorganisers.org and book now....
26th January 2021
PRS for Music launches new Online Live Concert licence for small-scale livestreamed gigs Available for livestreamed events below £500 in revenue New portal allows easy licence purchase for those wanting to stage or host an online live concert or gig in the UK New educational webpage helps members and potential licensees understand the rights and licensing requirement of onli...
26th January 2021
The National Arts Fundraising School has developed an online version of the school, running over four consecutive weeks, to enable arts fundraisers to benefit from the focused learning that the residential school provides but in a flexible, accessible and C-19 safe way. This programme will teach you how to formulate a robust strategy to raise significantly more money, and equip yourself with pr...
25th January 2021
Mitigations to Reduce Transmission of the new variant SARS-CoV-2 virusSAGE-EMG, SPI-B, Transmission Group, 23 Dec 2020 Be sure to take time to read the mitigations to reduce transmission of the new variant here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/948607/s0995-mitigations-to-reduce-transmission-of-the-new-variant.pdf...
24th January 2021
CRF: Grants Round one – underspend communications 21.1.21 – FINAL EMAIL 1 To: all CRF1 Grant recipients Subject: Underspend on Culture Recovery Fund: Grants (first round) Hello, We are happy to be able to confirm that DCMS has advised that, due to the changes in restrictions brought about by the introduction of tiers and current lockdown, any remaining underspend on you...
22nd January 2021
Arts Council England seem to have made an error in the text of part of CRF2 application. Lucy Stone has very kindly provided the following. Character Counts in the Expenditure Table and the Delivery Plan Table are intended to be 100 Characters. There seem to be a number of anomalies in Grantium on the word counts for the Expenditure Table and the Delivery Pla...
