Lewis Capaldi Announces Livestream Gig To Help Save Grassroots Music Venues
Lewis Capaldi and Celeste will be playing special livestreamed gigs on October 9 to help raise money for the UK’s grassroots music venues.
Lewis Capaldi, Celeste and Cate Le Bon are all set to play special livestreamed gigs this Friday, October 9, to raise funds for struggling grassroots music venues in the UK.
The gigs will take place as part of Amazon Music’s Amazon Prime Day Live event. Capaldi will play a gig in Scotland, while Celeste will perform in England and Cate Le Bon in Wales. All the shows will stream from 7pm to 9pm BST on Friday, and will be available to view via Twitch and the Amazon Music app. Donations during the shows will go towards struggling grassroots venues across the UK.
Mark Davyd, founder of the Music Venue Trust, spoke about the importance of the gigs, saying: “Many of the UK’s iconic grassroots music venues remain at significant risk of permanent closure, which is not just catastrophic for everyone associated with each and every venue, but for UK music culture in general.
“Amazon Music was one of the first donors for our COVID-19 Crisis fund earlier this year, and we’re excited they are continuing their support through this Prime Day Live event to help us raise awareness of the plight of venues and help drive much-needed donations to keep them open.
“Every penny helps, so we are also hugely grateful for Amazon’s donations and any further support from the public.”
Last week, the Music Venue Trust described the situation for hundreds of grassroots venues as “critical” as they warned that the fate of hundreds of venues now hung in the balance.
The live music sector remains in danger with two thirds of the UK’s grassroots music venues still unable to go ahead with socially distanced gigs and hundreds still fighting for funding in a bid to survive COVID closures.
“After six months of struggling to survive, grassroots music venues now face a two-week period of huge uncertainty in which their future will be decided by the outcome of a single government funding announcement,” Mark Davyd told NME. “The Government has put all its eggs in one basket and has no back-up plan to prevent the complete collapse of this entire cultural sector, placing at risk over 200,000 jobs and billions of pounds of economic activity.”
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