[ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
Music Venue Trust (MVT), which represents grassroots music venues in the UK, and ticketing company Ticketmaster have agreed that venues will receive a 50% rebate on all booking fees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
More money will land in the pockets of grassroots venues as they seek recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to a change in the partnership between MVT and Ticketmaster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The partnership was originally launched in 2016 and was called \u2018The Grassroots Venue Tickets\u2019 platform, which allowed some revenue to be handed back to the grassroots circuit from ticketing. The money was re-invested by the venues in facilities and event programming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, the 50% rebate from booking fees will also enable grassroots venues to further re-invest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new deal commenced yesterday (Monday) and Mark Davyd, chief executive of MVT, said: \u201cAs we emerge from this crisis, we are delighted to have worked with the Ticketmaster team to further improve the Grassroots Venues Ticket offer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis new deal puts even more money back into venues where it belongs. We will continue to work with Ticketmaster to develop this partnership so that it supports our whole network.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Managing director of Ticketmaster Andrew Parsons added: \u201cNow is a more critical time than ever for the industry to support grassroots venues. Through our long-standing partnership with Music Venue Trust, more than \u00a3150k has already been contributed to our \u2018maintain and sustain\u2019 fund.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo build on this we are evolving our ticketing partnership to donate even more from our fee to these treasured venues, and we\u2019re proud to play our part.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In early October, it was revealed that grassroots music venues in the UK were still facing up to \u00a390m ($122m\/\u20ac105m) worth of debt<\/a> due to the costs incurred by the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n MVT set up an initiative in April 2020 following the first lockdown in the UK to help protect grassroots music venues from closure.<\/p>\n Image: John Matychuk<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n