Festivals and grassroots venues among 340 beneficiaries in final CRF round

The Department of Culture Media & Sport (DCMS) has announced the recipients of the final £35 million grant distribution from the Culture Recovery Fund (CRF), which include festivals, grassroots venues, and event promoters and producers.

Cheltenham Festivals is one of the biggest beneficiaries, receiving more than £937,000 toward its work on events including the Cheltenham Music Festival. Alex Trenchard’s Standon Calling festival (pictured) received £234,000. Harrogate International Festivals has received a grant of £80,000 to continue delivering festivals such as the Harrogate Music Festival, Green Gathering received £45,000, Reading Fringe Festival £33,700, Bristol International Jazz and Blues Festival £48,500 and Tribe Festivals – which produced events including The Wychwood Music Festival – has received £45,000.

Grassroots music venues and clubs were also well represented among the beneficiaries. They include London venues Corsica Studios (£185,000), 100 Club (£368,000) and Village Underground (£300,000), £60,000 for Portsmouth’s Wedgewood Rooms, £35,700 for the operators of the 200-capacity The Joiners in Southampton, £75,000 for Norwich’s The Garage, while The Sound Lounge in Sutton received £133,000, and The Boileroom in Guildford £234,000.

Among the event producers and promoters to benefit are Ghostwriter Consultancy & Events in County Durham, which was awarded £384,000.

Since August 2020, the CRF has distributed £1.57 billion to around 5,000 organisations across the country.

Harrogate International Festivals chief executive Sharon Canavar said, “This funding will make a significant difference to our ongoing delivery and emergence from the pandemic. Festivals are cyclical by nature and despite delivering a mix of digital and smaller scale live events during 2021 we need to be fit for purpose for the future learning from our resilience, radically changed programmes and creative ambition over the last two years. This funding will allow us to make informed decisions on our future artistic and community outputs.”