93% of UK music fans support £1 ticket levy on large events to help fund grassroots venues

A new survey has revealed that 93 per cent of music fans in the UK would back a £1 ticket levy on large scale events and arena shows to support grassroots music venues amid ongoing closures.

The survey, conducted by Music Fans’ Voice, collected responses from 8,000 music fans across varying genres (with rock being the most popular type of music the group attend gigs for), aged 18 and above.

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99 per cent of participants agreed that live music is an important part of UK culture, and 30 per cent said they visit a grassroots venue monthly. As for larger venues, these are attended less regularly, with 27 per cent saying they visit an arena less than once a year. A large number of respondents also said they “never” attend nightclubs.

58 per cent of fans said they have witnessed the closure of a locally important music venue or nightclub since 2020, and the same percentage of participants also said that more local events would enable them to attend more gigs, with transportation costs preventing people from attending venues.

For those who said they have been attending less live music events compared to a year ago, the high cost of tickets was the main reason why, with 64 respondents citing this as an issue. The general cost of living and frustrations with dynamic pricing on tickets also fall closely behind as reasons why fans are not able to attend as many gigs as they once did. Only 11 per cent of those who have experienced a ticket price surge due to the dynamic pricing model agreed that the concept of surge pricing was effectively communicated to them beforehand.

Last year it was revealed that the UK government was planning to look into the “transparency” of dynamic ticket pricing. It was also later revealed it was planning to tackle ticket touts by potentially introducing a price cap on resale websites.

You can view the full report via Music Fans’ Voice.

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