ASM arena group agrees to Music Venue Trust pledge to pay back into grassroots – Armessa Music News

ASM Arena group has announced its support for the Music Venue Trust by creating a new set of initiatives to help the grassroots music industry.

Music Venue Trust (MVT) is a charity that represents and protects almost 1000 grassroots music venues (GMVs). ASM Global – which operates AO Arena, OVO Arena Wembley, First Direct Arena and more – will actively seek opportunities to support MVT as part of its ongoing planning. This includes one-off initiatives designed to raise additional income for the fund.

ASM Global announced that OVO Arena Wembley will match Enter Shikari’s £1 per ticket sold donation to the MVT when they perform in February 2024. There will also be opportunities for additional fundraising activity for GMVs via tickets for events at ASM Global venues.

Mark Davyd, the CEO of Music Venue Trust, said in a press release: “We want to thank ASM Global for being the first arena operators to respond to our call for support from the live music industry to deal with the crisis engulfing grassroots music venues.

“This is an incredibly important first step towards ensuring that when an artist emerges from the grassroots sector, everyone shares in the success they generate once they reach the very top of the industry. We look forward to developing this important relationship.”

Tom Lynch, Commercial Director and SVP Europe at ASM Global, shared: “At ASM Global, we are very aware and concerned about the unprecedented cost pressures facing Grassroots Music Venues, and in turn, the knock-on pressures placed on the pipeline of talent for the rest of the live music industry.”

He continued:”Grassroots Music Venues are the lifeblood of our cultural fabric and where much of society truly falls in love with music for the first time. As a team, we have always admired the passion and hard work of Music Venue Trust, in providing a voice to Grassroots Music Venues and creating a framework for vital support to keep the music playing.”

Earlier this year, a report from the Music Venue Trust showed that grassroots gig spaces in the UK were “going over a cliff” – shutting off the pipeline of future talent without urgent government action and investment from new large arenas.

A month after the report, a number of the UK’s proposed new arenas responded to the demand from the Music Venue Trust for them to invest back into grassroots music spaces or else not be allowed to open.

During an event attended by NME at the Houses Of Parliament, the MVT laid out action required from government and called out new large UK arenas to “contribute to the security of the wider music ecosystem by investing a percentage of every ticket they sell into the grassroots music ecosystem”.