Glasgow cafe in scheme to preserve grassroots music venues

A scheme aimed at securing the long-term future of grassroots music venues around the UK hopes to protect Glasgow’s Glad Cafe.

The southside cafe is among nine establishments identified by the Music Venue Trust, a charity which hopes to preserve them as music venues.

It aims to do so by raising money to buy the freeholds of each venue, selling shares to “music fans and ethical investors”.

The charity hopes to raise £3.5 million and purchase the nine venues by the end of the year, with investors offered a 3% APR return.

It says the music venue sector has taken on £90 million in debt since the start of the pandemic, and around a third of venues have closed in the last 20 years.

As well as the Glad Cafe, the Trust hopes to secure six venues in England and two in Wales.

Mark Davyd, CEO of Music Venue Trust, said: “The long-term security and prosperity of grassroots music venues depends almost entirely on one thing – ownership.

“Too many have been at the mercy of some commercial landlords whose motivations revolve primarily around profit.

“We have lost over a third of our venues in the last 20 years and with over 90% having only 18 months left on their tenancies, we are at the cliff edge and could see the decimation of our sector if we don’t do something radical about it.

“The Music Venue Properties scheme will allow ethical investors and music fans to invest in the future of live music while receiving a healthy return on their money.

“Our #SaveOurVenues campaign launched during the pandemic raised over £4.1 million with more than 80,000 people contributing.

“We already have the crowd – we just need to ask them to invest from May 23 and are confident they will.”