The O2 has announced that it will be making a donation to the Music Venue Trust (MVT) every time a new artist headlines the arena.
The new initiative is introduced as part of a wider, three-year commitment, and is designed to ensure that grassroots music spaces can remain open and continue to nurture artists in the early stages of their careers.
It also comes as this year alone saw the iconic London venue host over 50 first-time performers, who have each advanced from the grassroots network and reached arena status. These have included Pulp, Architects, Wolf Alice and Gracie Abrams.
To kick off the new initiative, organisers at The O2 are making an initial six-figure donation to Music Venue Trust in celebration of the milestone, and hope that the single donation helps highlights the critical need for a sustainable pipeline in the UK.
“The O2 is proud to support the UK’s live music ecosystem, starting with the small stages in local communities,” said Emma Bownes, Senior Vice President, Venue Programming at AEG Europe. “Every artist who headlines The O2 for the first time reflects the strength of that grassroots network. By partnering with Music Venue Trust, we’re investing in the pipeline that nurtures the next generation of breakthrough artists and ensures they have a place to start.
Mark Davyd, CEO of Music Venue Trust agreed, adding: “This is a hugely significant and welcome move from The O2. The success of our arenas is directly connected to the health of the grassroots venues where so many of those headliners began their journey. This partnership sets a powerful new benchmark for the industry, proving that major venues can actively participate in securing the future of the talent pipeline.
“Our challenge to every other arena in the UK is simple: The O2 has taken a lead, now it’s your chance to follow.”
Mumford & Sons’ Ben Lovett also shared how the folk band are wholeheartedly supportive of the incentive, and are proud to be playing two nights at the venue since the news was shared
“Our first time taking to this iconic stage was in 2012, back when many of the venues where we had cut our teeth, including the Luminaire in Kilburn where we played our first headline show, had started closing down,” he shared.
“This trend has only continued, in London and across the country, and we have done everything we can to protect the essential grassroots scene; lobbying various sitting governments, trying to educate anyone who’d listen to the fact that artists don’t just arrive in these arenas from nowhere. We’ve played countless shows in these smaller rooms ever since, encouraged our fans to support and actioned the £1 per ticket levy on this current tour, generously supported by our audience.”
Lovett also went on to share that he had “personally invested into the Music Venue Properties initiative as well as continuing to support Music Venue Trust and a host of similar organisations over recent years.”
“We couldn’t care more about the essential work of small venues up and down the country and we think it’s brilliant that a venue like The O2 is making a meaningful donation, tied to their ‘first-time headliner’ model to contribute, as we all should, towards a more sustainable ecosystem within live music in the future,” he concluded.
The news of the MVT and O2 partnership comes as the past year has seen pressure mounting for the UK’s arena and stadiums, to help ensure the survival of smaller venues. There is increasing pressure and government action being made to introduce a £1 ticket levy – where £1 from every ticket sold gets invested back into the industry to help support grassroots spaces and rising talent. It is similar to the model seen in the Premier League of football, and is already in use in several countries across Europe.
Coldplay, Enter Shikari, Katy Perry, and Sam Fender have all adopted a levy of their own on their respective tours, and the moves come after 2023 proved to be the worst year on record, with 125 grassroots music venues shutting their doors.
Last November, progress was seen as the Culture, Media and Sport Committee welcomed the UK government’s backing of the proposed ticket levy, and in April this year, figures showed that 93 per cent of fans were all in favour of the £1 donations and would be willing to get involved to help support the UK’s live music ecosystem.
Later that month, it was reported that UK tour ticket contributions raised £500,000 for grassroots music venues, thanks to backing from the likes of Pulp and Mumford & Sons.
That came as various artists chose to donate £1 from every ticket sold to The Live Trust – a funding initiative from LIVE which was set up in the wake of last year’s CMS Select Committee investigation into the state of the grassroots. Pulp were the first act to get involved, and were shortly followed by Mumford & Sons, Diana Ross and Hans Zimmer.
In May, Wolf Alice‘s Joff Oddie and various industry leaders appeared at a government hearing into the state of UK grassroots music, and shared why it was so vital to keep investing back into smaller venues and emerging artists.
“The big thing that I’d like to communicate and get into your heads is that when my band Wolf Alice were doing the grassroots touring scene 12 years ago, it was unbelievably tight,” Oddie said. “For years, it was a loss-leader – and that’s typically how it goes. We would sleep on people’s floors when we were outside of London […] So 12 years ago the numbers didn’t stack up, and now it’s unbelievable.”
“[There are] a huge amount of things that artists have to pay for in order to go out on the road. We just about made it work. I can honestly say, I’m not sure how Wolf Alice would make it work today,” he added.
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