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Artists from across the UK are invited to apply for part of £125,000 worth of funding to help tackle “the cost of touring crisis” and get them on the road.
After the recent news that 30 grassroots venues were lost forever between July 2024 and July 2025, and last year alone saw more than half of those remaining making no profit and over 6,000 jobs lost, pressure has been mounting to help fund touring for artists to help prevent the existential threat to the future of the UK’s talent pipeline.
A landmark 2024 Parliamentary report by the Culture Media & Sport Committee saw Lily Fontaine of future Mercury Prize-winners English Teacher tell a government hearing that they were “working full-time but earning less than minimum wage”.
“That’s not legal,” she continued, “but it’s the way that the industry works and the way it is now for us. If we do make money, it’s a little bit because our label has chucked us some money to make things even. We make a little bit of money from selling merch, but the bigger capacity venues can take a cut of that.”
Speaking at the follow-up hearing a year later, Wolf Alice guitarist Joff Oddie warned that with music venues closing, artist costs rising and the loss of touring opportunities brought about by post-Brexit complications, “one of the things we risk is that music becomes a middle and upper class sport”.
“We’re already seeing that representation decline,” he offered. “There are all kinds of statistics showing that’s gone down of the last 15-20 years – especially for people outside the south east of England.”
Open now, the new UKAT fund has been put together by the Featured Artist Coalition (FAC) – in partnership with Music Managers Forum (MMF) and the Musicians’ Union (MU). The first phase offers proceeds of £125,000, collected from LIVE Trust donations as part of a voluntary “levy” ticket contributions from the likes of Sam Fender, Harry Styles, Radiohead, Lily Allen, Enter Shikari, Olivia Dean, Wolf Alice, Biffy Clyro, Ed Sheeran, Take That, The Cure, Kojey Radical, Foo Fighters and more.
LIVE Trust have distributed £500,000 so far, with millions more said to be on the way.
“We know the importance of promoters and of spaces for artists to play in, but what we’ve been campaigning on for a long time is that artists are coming to us and saying that they just can’t financially afford to make playing live work,” FAC CEO David Martin told NME. “This has been carefully designed and we’re at the start of an evolution. It won’t be perfect as it’s quite a tricky problem to solve, but we are excited that we are building something that could be seriously game-changing for the British sector.
“We’re providing top-up funding, because we know that without live activity happening, then there isn’t anything for the rest of the industry to build around.”
Recent years have seen the UK suffer from the “complete collapse of touring“, with 175 towns and cities declared “gig deserts”, and 35million people without live music in their area or community.
Martin said that the three main goals of the fund were to build and sustain actual artists’ careers, pay all of the people that rely on artist activity while funding the supply chain of the live sector, and “to revitalise audiences and bring artists closer to them where they are, to allow artists to reach new regions, and to make it affordable for artists to go out”.
“We want to increase the regional footprint that live music is getting to across the UK, create careers, fund the supply chain and develop the audience pipeline,” he said, while looking to break down cripplingly preventative barriers of cost.
He pointed to a recent post from Paige Kennedy, who added up all costs and expenses from their first headline tour – while also taking time out from work as a freelance teacher – to reveal a loss of over £10,000 from playing venues around the size of 200-capacity and selling out a London date.
“These artists are growing, but the affordability isn’t getting any easier,” Martin argued. “It’s not even always about growth, sometimes it’s about addressing market failure because the cost of living crisis is so acute.
“In some instances, we’re trying to get new artists up and running. In others, we’re trying to get artists at the other end of the spectrum to take some higher risks and play a couple more shows to new audiences in new regions. In the middle, there are artists at a level they might always be at, but we just need to make sure that they can sustain things right now.”
South London soul artist BINA told NME about just how much difference funding like this can make to an artist trying to head out on the road and find themselves.
“Touring is an important part of artistic development, especially in earlier stages, and a great way to connect with fans worldwide throughout our careers,” said BINA. “However, the costs of putting on a tour can be quite high! Funds like FAC’s UKAT can help bridge the gap between the barriers that production costs can present.”
Meanwhile, Leicester-born artist and songwriter SOFY explained how this initiative would provide “the invaluable experiences for artists and fans alike, as well as opening up opportunities for touring professionals such as engineers and tour managers.
“This feels like the important step in the right direction, and something the UK music industry has needed for as long as I can remember,” SOFY told NME, “towards more accessible, safer and higher quality tours for everyone involved.”
Estelle Wilkinson, a trustee of LIVE Trust added that “the whole purpose of collecting a £1 per ticket contribution on shows over a 5,000 capacity is to support the UK’s grassroots music ecosystem in its entirety”.
“We believe the UKAT Fund has real potential to deliver on those objectives – ensuring more artists can tour without tipping into debt, more session musicians can be hired, more venues can be booked, and everyone involved in putting on a show can be paid fairly,” she said. “We look forward to watching the fund evolve and develop beyond this initial launch phase.”
UK artists from across all ages and genres are invited to apply for the UKAT fund, as long as they meet the FAC’s following criteria:
- “Applicants must be 18-years-old and above, UK residents and have released new original music within the past three years”
- “Applicants can apply for up to £7,000 or a maximum of 40 per cent of total eligible tour expenditure – whichever is lower”
- “To qualify, tours must have a minimum of three UK headline shows in venues of between 75 and 2,000 capacity”
- At least 75 per cent of dates must be promoter-booked with guarantees, with no more than 25 per cent self-promoted or dry-hire”
- “Applicants must provide evidence of a financial shortfall between the costs of delivering these shows and the projected income from guarantees and fees”
- “All artists, musicians, managers and crew involved must receive fair and reasonable pay – covering show days, travel days and rehearsal time”
- “An additional Access Fund is also available to help cover access-related, caring or childcare costs”
Such initiatives could have a much more profound and widespread impact if the ticket levy of arena and stadium gigs comes fully into fruition. So far, the government has been waiting for the industry to proactively and voluntarily make the levy work before they step in and legislate to make it law and mandatory. Last year, it was expected that 50 per cent of stadium and arena gigs would be paying into the levy by the end of 2025. This was not met, and a new deadline has been set for June 30, 2026.
Martin said that he was excited to see what happens next with more artists and companies getting involved. “The Live Trust recently put out that there’s £5million so far this year in potential donations,” he told NME. “I feel really positive about this and it’s good for everybody. The record labels are very positive about it because it’s good for everyone; it’s groundbreaking. Everyone in the live music sector should be able to see that this could be a total sea change in the UK for building artists’ careers.
He added: “Everyone in the music industry benefits if artists are able to get out there and build their careers. The music industry is built on artists being able to have good relationships with their fans, build audiences, release music and play live. It’s pretty groundbreaking where the LIVE Trust has got to on this.”
With just 8.8 per cent of shows in 2025 signing up to the levy, Music Venue Trust CEO Mark Davyd put the blame largely at the foot of market leader Live Nation.
“These companies are delivering,” he said of the likes of SJM, Kilimanjaro and AEG. “Live Nation, you know, and the whole industry knows, you are not. If the voluntary levy fails, it will not be the fault of the companies who have already embraced it, or Music Venue Trust, or the government, or any will to do it on behalf of individuals, artists, managers, agents, audiences or anyone else.
“It will be a direct consequence of the overwhelmingly dominant force in the arena and stadium market deciding not to deliver a voluntary levy. That’s your choice, Live Nation, and everyone in the industry hopes you make the right one.”
The grassroots sector subsidised live music by £76.6million in 2025, while recent larger shows at arena and stadium level saw UK live music contribute a record-breaking £8billion to the economy.
Live Nation, who played a part in Harry Styles contributing £1 for each ticket to his upcoming Wembley Stadium residency to the LIVE Trust, responded to the criticism by telling NME that they “support artists’ choices on charitable donations, and has worked with numerous artists who have contributed to the voluntary levy – from Coldplay to Biffy Clyro – and will continue to do so.”
Visit here for more information or to apply to the UKAT fund.
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