Tunbridge Wells Forum to become “first venue in the country to introduce grassroots ticket levy”

nme.com:

A post shared by Tunbridge Wells Forum (@twforum)Recently, it was announced Alien Ant Farm and CKY had become the first American band to add a £1 ticket levy to their UK tours.It follows a similar move by Enter Shikari last year; last May, the band shared details of a 2024 run of UK tour dates, where £1 from each ticket sold was donated to the Music Venue Trust.Other companies have launched similar initiatives.

Independent ticketing company Skiddle announced in October it would donate 50p of every ticket sold towards saving grassroots music venues, while taxi firm FREENOW pledged to donate £1 from every ride to the cause.Ticketmaster have introduced a Music Venue Trust charity upsell option, enabling fans to make direct contributions to MVT when purchasing tickets.

Halifax venue Piece Hall has also implemented a similar scheme.Meanwhile, the reference to the “arena situation in Manchester” comes after the city’s new Co-Op Live Arena faced a series of disasters this week after pulling A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie‘s show last-minute due to part of an air conditioning unit falling from the ceiling.

Since the discovery of the malfunctioning unit, shows for Olivia Rodrigo, Keane, and Take That have all been confirmed to have been cancelled at the Co-Op Live.It also ended up at the centre of a row after then-boss Gary Roden came under fire for saying that some smaller venues in the UK are “poorly run” and dismissed calls for a £1 ticket levy on all gigs arena-sized and above.In response, Mark Davyd, CEO of the Music Venue Trust, told NME that he believed Roden’s comments were “disrespectful and disingenuous”, while also highlighting the irony of making such “ill-judged, unnecessary and misleading” remarks on the week that their own.