The Music Venue Trust (MVT) has revealed the results of a series of surveys and data collection exercises during the first month of the full-capacity reopening of grassroots music venues.

The survey of 1,891 people who normally attended music events prior to the pandemic revealed that 82% of live music fans have already attended, or shortly plan to attend, a grassroots live music event.

The findings also showed that 91% of attendees had chosen to take an additional personal precaution to support their safety; double vaccination, testing or immunity, with 36.8% of attendees taking more than one precaution.

In addition 76% of people attending live music events are double vaccinated, compared to 61% of the general population, while 9% want to see mandatory certification of health status as a condition of entry to grassroots venues.

But only 2% wanted to see certified double vaccination as the sole mandatory condition of entry. A mix of mandatory certification options, displaying vaccination, testing or immunity, was more strongly supported by live music fans.

Venues

A total of 221 grassroots music venues took part in a survey about the precautions they had taken around opening and the attendance at their events. 100 grassroots music venues were selected, with case rates and transmission rates in their locality mapped, to explore if the full capacity reopening had a discernible impact on local case rates.

The findings revealed that 68% of grassroots venues reported advance ticket sales were down on pre-Covid levels and 62% said turn up on the night (advanced sales and walk up) had also decreased. 52% of venues reported bar take was also down compared to the same period.

MVT CEO Mark Davyd said, “The response from venues, artists and audiences to the Covid threat has been incredible. These survey results clearly demonstrate a will by the live music community to create safe spaces, to take personal responsibility for ourselves and each other, and to act to Reopen Every Venue Safely.

“It is particularly striking that local case and transmission rates around grassroots music venues, far from exponentially increasing as was predicted, have, in reality, exceeded the decline in rates witnessed nationally.”