The National Lottery and Music Venue Trust Announce Ground-Breaking Partnership to Help Revive Grassroots Live Music

The National Lottery has partnered with leading UK chrity Music Venue Trust in a unique initiative to help revive the UK’s grassroots live music sector.

In an unprecedented collaboration, The National Lottery will contribute £1M to directly underwrite the touring and production costs of more than 300 live performances this summer, enabling the grassroots live music industry to start promoting shows again in the knowledge that the upfront costs associated with touring are covered.

The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour will run throughout the summer and will see a diverse range of headline artists including Olivia Dean, Twin Atlantic, The Magic Gang and The Futureheads perform at hundreds of grassroots music venues throughout the country. More than 20 tours will be taking place, once venues are able to open, in line with government guidance, with National Lottery players having a chance to gain access to every show for free.

Special one-off shows by Sir Tom Jones, Rag ‘N’ Bone Man, Mahalia, James Arthur, Frank Turner, Sam Fender and Fontaines D.C. will also take place at grassroots music venues to support the initiative and celebrate the return of live music.

Sir Tom Jones said: “Musicians can record in their bedrooms, but they can’t learn to perform in public without a place to play. Without that, there is no way you can communicate directly to people. It’ll be tough to hone your skills and you’ll never have the thrill of feeling their feedback. Without a grassroots music venue, the neighbourhood won’t have a place where people can come together to discover and support a new talent.

“So support your local pub, club, gym or church or wherever someone has the guts to bring in some entertainment, it makes all the difference both to budding artists and the community. I’m delighted to be able to perform a special show as part of The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour and to be celebrating the return of live music”

Up to 30,000 tickets – or around half the capacity of these shows – will be gifted to National Lottery players, giving music fans the opportunity to get back to live gigs as soon as possible.

Every National Lottery ticket-holder will be invited to bring a “plus one” for free - all they need to do to qualify for this offer is to show a National Lottery ticket or Scratchcard purchased in-store or online/via the National Lottery app when they attend the gig

Tickets for The National Lottery Revive Live Tour go on sale on Monday 12 July from 8pm.

Mark Dayvd, CEO of Music Venue Trust said, "It's so important to get artists and crew back out and working, to get our grassroots music venues back up and running, and to get friends, families and communities back together enjoying live music.

“Grassroots music 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. The National Lottery Revive Live Tour is a fantastic initiative which will kickstart the return of great events across the country. We can't wait to get started!"

Over the last 14 months grassroots music venues have been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic - 83% of venues have faced closure during this period and are emerging from lockdown burdened with a collective debt of £45m.*

A recently conducted LIVE survey of music fans shows that the majority are now ready to return to live music, with over 75% ready to attend shows immediately. The results of this survey indicate that enthusiasm for live music has been intensified by the crisis, with one third of gig-goers say they will attend shows more frequently than they did previously.

The money for this initiative comes from a National Lottery promotional fund. It is not being funded by money allocated for National Lottery Good Causes or by Camelot.

For more information on The National Lottery Revive Live Tour, please visit:

https://musicvenuetrust.com/the-national-lottery-revive-live-tour/