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A Lifeline for Indie Venues: Can a New Tax on Arena and Stadium Concert Tickets Save the U.K.’s Grassroots Circuit?
With U.K. independent music venues closing at an alarming rate, a new steers £1 from each arena and stadium concert ticket to indies. Can it work?
At U.K. music’s biggest night, the 2025 BRIT Awards held at London’s cavernous O2 Arena, a succession of rising artists used their moment in the spotlight to stress the importance of the grassroots independently owned venues where they cut their teeth as musicians. Thankfully, there is now a plan in place to preserve Britain’s fabled independent venues, which have played a key role in the emergence of U.K. talent since long before the Beatles first took the stage of Liverpool’s Cavern Club in 1961. After a long campaign by the MVT and other trade bodies, the new U.K. Labour government has backed a voluntary scheme for arena and stadium concert tickets in the U.K. to carry an additional £1 ($1.28) charge, known as a levy, to support grassroots venues, artists and promoters.
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