Ticketmaster U.K.‘s current plan to assist grassroots music venues in Britain will make your ticket cost more, should you choose the new limited-time ticketing option that gives an added donation directly to the venue on top of the base ticket price.
Indeed, the U.K. arm of Ticketmaster is launching the charity upsell for Music Venue Trust (MVT) to coincide with its sponsorship of Venues Day 2023.
Starting Oct. 17 and running for a month, anyone purchasing a ticket on Ticketmaster U.K.’s site will be given the option to donate directly to MVT, then added onto the final ticket price. Ticketmaster says it will match the purchaser’s donation amount.
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The announcement arrives just weeks after Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, announced a U.S. initiative to halt merch cuts for touring bands for a brief period.
“This upsell provides a practical method for fans to support grassroots music venues, and we are incredibly grateful to the Ticketmaster team for putting it in place,” MVT CEO Mark Davyd tells IQ. “Ticketmaster matching all fan donations is a powerful message for the whole industry about the support our sector needs and the will of the music community to provide it.”
Music Venue Trust Announces Ticketmaster U.K. Venue Donation Option
He adds, “Ticketmaster has been a long-term and committed partner of MVT, and their core support has been vital in developing us as the authentic voice of grassroots venues, artists and fans.”
The U.K.’s Venues Day is the largest national networking event for the country’s grassroots music venue sector. It gives attendees the chance to learn about running a venue and the opportunity to speak with venue owners and concert promoters.
“This year’s Venues Day is bigger than ever, with more venues attending, more delegates, more partners, and more on offer,” Davyd says. “Our goal is to match the size of the event with the size of ambitions for what is delivered on the day, and what we can bring to the sector.”
He explains, “127 grassroots music venues have closed in the last 12 months — more than one is permanently closing every week. We need a radical intervention by everyone: the government, the music industry, artists and fans, to stop these closures and turn this around.”
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