Christopher BarrettThe Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) has welcomed an additional £300,000 from the LIVE Trust to support touring artists via the UK Artist Touring (UKAT) fund.
The LIVE Trust funding, collected from voluntary ticket contributions at large-scale music events, including shows by Harry Styles, Take That, Wolf Alice, Lorde and Radiohead, will provide artists with financial support to cover shortfalls in their touring budgets.
UKAT was launched in partnership with the Music Managers Forum (MMF) and Musicians’ Union (MU) in March to help artists address economic challenges in the UK’s live music market. FAC said that for the vast majority of artists the fixed costs of performing in small and medium-sized venues far outweighs the income generated by ticket sales or guarantees.
Applications for artists to access the funding will open on 26 August at 10am, with a deadline for submissions of 11 September. Full application details can be found here. Artists can apply for a maximum of £8,000.
The first UKAT distribution was made in April with 26 artists across the UK receiving funding from the initial £125,000 channelled from the LIVE Trust.
FAC said that as a result of the funding, 211 shows will take place across the UK that might otherwise have been cancelled: “Now with a 140% increase in funding from the LIVE Trust and an expansion of our application criteria, we hope to extend these positive ripple effects – distributing funding quickly, efficiently and transparently, responding to market demand, and ensuring we can develop long-term solutions that alleviate deep-seated structural challenges.”
“With UKAT putting this money directly into the hands of artists, it is helping address the crisis at the foundations of live music while supporting the wider ecosystem of venues, promoters, crews and suppliers that depends on artists being able to tour,” said Culture Media and Sport Committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage MP.
LIVE Trust CEO Jon Collins said, “Like our other partner programmes, working with UKAT shows the value of placing money with industry experts who understand the nuances of their sector.”