We'll be at the fourth edition of Soho Calling, taking place on Wednesday 25 February welcoming some fantastic guests to our stage at the iconic 100 Club.

It's Tinnitus Awareness Week, with Tinnitus UK reminding us that "hearing damage linked to live music is preventable".

Our Annual Report includes a double-page spread on Scotland (and Wales, and Northern Ireland too) showing over 1.8 million people attended grassroots music shows there in 2025 - a contribution worth £47.4 million to the economy.

As well as one-to-one advice, our expert Gurus are running a trio of no-nonsense sessions at our Venues Day - covering everything from financial strategy and landlord issues to licensing and noise.

The London Nightlife Taskforce report sets out a compelling case for recognising nightlife as culture and supporting the people and spaces that make it possible.

Venues Day returns this year, on 17 March, with a renewed focus on delivery, skills and long-term sustainability. 🎟️ General tickets are now available via bit.ly/VenuesDay26

Thanks to live music activists just like you, our incredible Venue Support Team were able to handle 205 emergency cases in 2025, stepping in when venues needed help. Real venues, in real towns, kept alive because people backed this work.

In this episode at youtu.be/nWxl9fAToes, Toni is joined by Charlie and Lala to explore the values that sit at the heart of grassroots music venues.

This week marked a genuine milestone for grassroots live music.

Last year MVT played a key mentoring role in the development of understanding grassroots music venues around the world.

We’re recruiting volunteers to help deliver Venues Day 2026 with us, the UK’s largest annual gathering of grassroots music venues, taking place on 17 March at Shoreditch Town Hall, London. 📩 If you’re interested, register via bit.ly/MVTvolunteer... - or tag someone who should apply.

Public Service Broadcasting have announced their biggest headline show to date at Alexandra Palace... and they’re donating £1 from every ticket to the grassroots levy. THANK YOU to the band and their whole team.

Music Venue Trust is delighted to be partnering with Liverpool City Council to deliver a programme that offers meaningful support to Grassroots Music Venues and celebrates Liverpool’s decade as a UNESCO City of Music.

Music Venue Trust warmly welcomes today’s government statement on urgent and immediate Business Rate relief. We want to thank MPs, Mayors, unitary and local authorities, and especially music fans and communities across the country...

“We’re happy to once again be supporting the Music Venue Trust with donations from our ticket sales. We will always support and fight for grassroots venues...

In 2025, UK grassroots venues paid more tax than at any point in history... all while the average profit margin was just 2.5%.

Harry Styles kicks off 2026 with a bang - and with a boost to grassroots. He’s the first artist this year to announce a major UK stadium tour with £1 from every ticket going to the LIVE Trust, directly supporting the UK’s grassroots venues. 📸 via Harry Styles

Music Venue Trust is proud to support Hope Over Fear - the new climate campaign from Music Declares Emergency that brings the focus of environmental action into our towns, cities and grassroots spaces.

When we first talked about buying the freeholds to grassroots music venues, some people laughed. Some said it was impossible. But guess what? We’ve done it with #OwnOurVenues.

You can't manufacture belonging, it’s all in the details. Venues are where people find their tribe, and a night’s experience comes from the choices made behind the scenes. 📸 by Jeanie Jean

Our Annual Report highlights the stark truth that 59% of grassroots music venues no longer receive regular national touring shows. Whole regions - towns and cities with millions of people - have effectively vanished from the UK’s touring map.

Thank you to the guests and venues that joined us for the launch of our 2025 report - and especially to those venues around the UK who continue to fight every day to keep their space open. 📸 by Georgia Penny

We're pleased to release MVT's 2025 Annual Report at www.MusicVenueTrust.com - the best, no nonsense snapshot of the grassroots live music sector over the past year. 📺 Watch the full new podcast episode, diving into the Annual Report at youtu.be/5LZVKzc76ns

Our Annual Report 2025 is now available to read at www.MusicVenueTrust.com. Venues, artists, promoters, crews, and fans - this is vital reading for anybody in the live music sector. It offers research and information, as well as your blueprint for what we do next.

There were some huge wins for grassroots music in 2025. But our Annual Report shows there’s still work to do - especially when it comes to safeguarding future careers. Read the full 2025 Annual Report from midnight at: www.MusicVenueTrust.com

We've surveyed our whole membership to bring you our 2025 Annual Report. We urge every one of you to read this in full online from Wednesday morning. It will outline our key findings, some fantastic developments, but also some bleak issues that we have found solutions to. 👀 Honestly - READ THIS.

✨ 𝘼𝙉𝙉𝙐𝘼𝙇 𝙍𝙀𝙋𝙊𝙍𝙏 𝘾𝙊𝙑𝙀𝙍 𝙍𝙀𝙑𝙀𝘼𝙇 ✨ Thank you to Issey from The Molotovs for fronting our Annual Report, with a brilliant photo by Alfie Bungay shot at Scala. A powerful reminder of why we do this work - and why the data inside matters.

Six years ago, in January 2020, it felt like hope was finally on the horizon for grassroots music venues. Then the world fell apart, and it’s taken time to get back to a place where we can genuinely believe this might be the turning point year. 📺 Watch the new episode at: youtu.be/1MTSDfy4_Zk

🥂 Dry January is a positive thing for our bodies and minds. Less booze. Better sleep. Clearer heads. We’re all for that... But it’s also a really tough month for grassroots music venues, where margins are already razor-thin - and quieter gigs in January can tip things over the edge.

Music Venue Trust have recently partnered with Setmixer to help bring automated live recording technology to venues across our network, with no upfront costs.

Alright then - what’s the one gig already in your calendar that’s keeping you going this winter? Tag the venue. Tag the artist. Let’s spread some excitement. 📸 Greta Baltic

We’re looking for volunteers to work with us and support Venues Day 2026 - the UK’s biggest gathering of grassroots music venues, happening on 17 March at Shoreditch Town Hall, London.

Happy New Year to everyone who donated, campaigned, gigged, booked, volunteered, or shouted about our work over 2025... we thank you. You’ve helped keep grassroots live music alive.

In our final Last Safe Space episode of 2025… Toni and Mark Davyd look back on a defining year for the grassroots music ecosystem. 📺 Watch at youtu.be/-cvctI9t8Mo

From the outside, it might seem like all the action happens on stage. But behind the scenes, there’s a whole network of people, decisions, battles and breakthroughs shaping the future of grassroots music. 📺 youtu.be/VFzFRPEC3qo

A huge MVT thanks to Phyllis Belezos for her four years as Co-Chair of Music Venue Trust - and for continuing as a trustee with us.

We've been bouncing around the UK alongside Lords, Dames, MPs, Combined Authorities, Local Councils, Music Boards and Arts Organisations, gathering thoughts, ideas and honest reflections from fans in towns and cities up and down the country.

"Music venues are class and we all know that grassroots ones are the best." Getdown Services just wrapped up a massive 2025 with another sold-out show at the Electric Ballroom this weekend. 📸 Mike Rushby, The Tunnels, Aberdeen.

Venues are built on purpose. The values that drive their creation continue to shape every decision; from the way the bar, stage, and sound are managed, to how staff are respected, artists are looked after, and audiences feel safe and included.

🎁 Got someone unwrapping their first guitar this year? A set of drums? A old mic that might just change their life? Instruments can spark a lifetime of music... but only if there’s somewhere to play.

This week at youtu.be/XzKLBG_GzGo, MVT’s Toni is joined by Lala Oyegun, Membership Coordinator for the Music Venue Alliance, to talk about how the MVA is helping hundreds of venues across the UK…

We’re very proud to confirm that the Grassroots Venue: Spirit Of The Scene award is returning to the Music Week Awards for another year, which is another chance to celebrate the venues that keep the foundations of UK music alive.

The entire music industry is united in calling for Sir Keir Starmer and his government to take urgent and decisive action on business rates before ticket prices soar and venues close. We have come together today to sign a joint letter to the Prime Minister: bit.ly/MVTopenletter

Thank you to the artists, their teams, and their fans for including a voluntary grassroots levy on their tickets this year. If this initiative isn't directly led by the music industry, it will be led by government and less in all of our collective control.

Today, The O2 and Music Venue Trust announce a groundbreaking new partnership that formally recognises the essential role of Grassroots Music Venues in creating tomorrow’s arena headliners. 📸 Estie Joy

For every grassroots music venue that shuts its doors, around 200 gigs vanish from the map. 200 local shows that don’t happen. No support slots. No first-stage debuts. No tour dates in your town. No gigs = no future for live music. None of the stuff you love. Simple.

Big congratulations to Audio and Slay in Glasgow. Both awarded GOLD at this year’s Best Bar None Scotland awards.

🎁 Please forget the mug, and ditch the novelty tat which ends up in landfill. This year, put your money where the music is. A £10 Secret Santa budget is a gig ticket. A real night out, and an experience that somebody might not have had.

Congratulations to Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) members Shambala Festival, Wychwood Festival, Tramlines, Truck, Y Not, Kendal Calling, and Liverpool Sound City for picking up awards at the UK Festival Awards last night… 📸 Shambala

The Molotovs are heading to Bush Hall for a one-off Christmas show in support of grassroots music venues. Tickets on sale now at bit.ly/MoloXmas, with proceeds going to Music Venue Trust and our ongoing work.