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Gigseekr, a website dedicated to discovering live music, has set up a Grassroots Music Fund to help struggling artists, venues and production companies.

The fund is appealing for donations from fans and larger companies to support people whose income has been affected by the Covid-19 crisis. The money will go to artists, venues and production companies working on gigs with up to 500 capacity.

David Hamilton, founder of Gigseekr commented: “We’re acutely aware of how many shows have been cancelled and that the smaller elements of the industry are really suffering, so our concept is simply to support them through these difficult times, so that when things pick up they are able to continue.

“Analysing our event data, we can see that already over 2,600 shows have been cancelled across the UK. We estimate that this will rise to over 5,000 cancelled shows by the end of June, resulting in over £40m of lost revenues. The grassroots sector is vital to the music industry and we want to use our reach via Gigseekr to let fans show their support for their favourite artists and venues.

“I hope fans will support the artists, venues and many others who have given them so much pleasure over the years gone by, which will mean they can survive and re-open to give those fans (and us all) the joy of live music for many years to come.”

Venues/bands/production companies are invited to apply for help from the fund for up to 80% of their losses up to a maximum of £2,000, via www.gigseekr.com/grassrootsmusicfund/apply