The Passport Back To Our Roots campaign has announced that their Crowdfunder has raised over £137,000 for independent music venues in the United Kingdom. The event’s slogan ‘Big Artists, Small Gigs, Real Gigs’ provides hopeful optimism, that we will be able to attend live events in the near future.
The campaign was launched in 2020, as a response to the potential mass closure of live music venues in Great Britain. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, local lockdowns meant that live events were unable to continue. Valued members of staff in the live music industry lost their jobs, and venues have been at risk of permanent closure.
Through an online raffle, people were able to donate money to grassroots venues, alongside The Music Venue Trust Crisis Fund. With the tour dates TBA, it allows ticket winners to attend the show in due course, when events can take place in a safe and secure manner.
Through three weeks of fundraising for each show, The Passport Campaign allowed people to purchase raffle tickets for shows around the United Kingdom. The shows include artists like Metronomy, KT Tunstall, Pet Shop Boys, and Everything Everything. The range of musicians and genres has allowed the campaign to broaden its horizons, and invite a diverse range of audiences to support the cause.
All winners for the second wave of events were informed via email at the end of October, with the event organisers stating that more shows would be announced in the future. All events will be hosted post-lockdown when it is safe to do so.
