All Sussex Grassroots Music Venues Taken Off 'In Danger' Covid Closure List

Music Venue Trust (MVT), which represents hundreds of UK grassroots music venues (GMVs), has announced that 13 out of the 30 GMVs on their "Save Our Venues Red List" — which highlights those venues in imminent danger of permanent closure — have successfully been removed from immediate threat.  

The venues deemed to be in a safer position now are The Rossi Bar in Brighton, The Brunswick in Hove, and The Grand Elektra and The Crypt (a combined location) in Hastings.

In November the charity launched its Traffic Light campaign, a new phase of its hugely successful "Save Our Venues" (#saveourvenues) campaign which is seeking to reopen every venue safely after the Covid crisis.

The trust believed the Traffic Light campaign adjusted the focus of the Charity's fundraising work to be securing the future of 30 venues which were reportedly ineligible to receive funding from, or wholly or partially unsuccessful in their application to, the government backed Culture Recovery Funds.

But the trust said this week that, as a result of what it called the "amazing success" of the campaign and a combined effort by audiences, local communities, local councils and the creative community, a total of 13 venues nationwide had been removed from the 'red list'.

These included all three in Sussex.

• Rossi Bar in Brighton 
• The Brunswick, Hove
• The Grand Elektra / The Crypt, Hastings
• Arden Inn, Accrington
• Backstage Kinross
• Boulevard, Wigan
• Four Horsemen, Bournemouth
• Gellions, Inverness
• Hootenanny, Inverness
• Plot 22, Sheffield
• Strange Brew, Bristol
• The Railway Inn, Winchester
• Waterloo Bar, Blackpool

Mark Davyd, CEO of Music Venue Trust, said: 

"We want to thank every artist, every audience member, every member of our community for taking direct action which means we are able to remove these 13 venues from the Red List right now.

"The love shown for these venues continues to demonstrate how important they are to people and to our towns and cities.

"Music Venue Trust is committed to reopening every venue safely and we are going to carry on working through this crisis until that outcome is achieved."

Speaking about the news Ambre France, owner of Rossi Bar, said

"We are incredibly grateful to have been part of MVT's Red List campaign, which highlighted the probability of our imminent closure as a venue if we had not had support from the public.

"Our struggle was shared with other venues in the same position as ours and spotlighted in the public eye.

"This led to targeted promotion, press opportunities and financial support through the sale of merchandise, paid for by MVT.

"We were also extremely lucky to receive a £5K grant from MVT. 

We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of this charity, for helping us navigate through the last year but also for coaching us through such gruelling funding applications.

We hope that a successful CRF2 bid and the support we have received through MVT will leave in us a stable position and feeling hopeful for the future of our small grassroots music venue."

Music Venue Trust is now reviewing the position of all other grassroots music venues to analyse which venues are at risk and need to be moved onto the red list. 

The trust, and many performers, believe 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.