The line-up for Reading & Leeds would look very totally different this yr if it weren’t for grassroots music venues.
As revealed in an idea poster shared by the Music Venue Trust, the pageant can be lacking nearly all of its 2024 artists – together with headliners Liam Gallagher, Fred once more.., Lana Del Rey, Catfish And The Bottlemen and Gerry Cinnamon – if it weren’t for his or her foundations in grassroots venues.
The reimagined poster highlights what number of of at present’s most profitable artists got here up by enjoying smaller music venues, which proceed to face indefinite closure throughout the UK with out pressing authorities motion and funding.
“Today’s festival headliners can only sell thousands of tickets because of the essential role played by these venues in their development,” the MVT shared in a social media submit at present (Monday 25).
“Nurtured in grassroots music venues, they built their audiences from tens to hundreds, laying the foundation for their success on the grand stages of festivals like Reading & Leeds.”
Check out the naked line-up poster beneath.
The Reading & Leeds pageant lineup poster, minus any artists who launched their careers in Grassroots Music Venues….
Posted by Music Venue Trust on Monday, March 25, 2024
Only artists like Reneé Rapp, who began in theatre, Digga D, who rose to prominence with freestyles, and Kenny Beats, who got here from a manufacturing and trade background, would stay on the invoice.
It’s not simply the Reading & Leeds line-up that may lose most of its acts have been it not for grassroots music venues. The MVT beforehand revealed that Glastonbury 2024 would additionally very a lot be missing with out the venues that supported the artists all through their early careers.
A report earlier this yr highlighted the “disaster” that struck the UK’s grassroots music venues in 2023, because the MVT warned that “we are losing the next generation of British talent because we can’t be bothered to get it right”.
It got here after it was revealed that the UK was set to lose 10 per cent of its grassroots music venues in 2023, as calls continued for the “major leagues” of the music trade to step up.
Elsewhere, one other telling report printed final week revealed that, 30 years on since Oasis‘ debut UK tour, solely six of the venues they performed stay open at present.
In different pageant information, Festival Republic’s managing director Melvin Benn not too long ago advised NME in regards to the launch of their new ReBalance initiative and his dedication to supporting rising ladies and non-binary artists.
“It has been a man’s world,” Benn advised NME. “Unfortunately things do take time to change, but unless people like me are willing to make the effort to assist that change, it will take longer for it to come.”