Devastating impact of cancelled music events on Bristol’s economy

The impact of coronavirus restrictions continues to hit Bristol’s music venues hard amid warnings of devastating economic fallout for the city.

Matt Otridge, manager of the Exchange and a representative of the Music Venue Trust, says many places have worked hard to adapt during the pandemic and were initially successful, but the 10pm curfew and bad press around the hospitality sector have taken their toll.

While some of the city’s venues were able to secure funding from the Culture Recovery Fund, others have slipped through the net and Matt warns their loss would have a huge knock-on effect on the entire night-time economy.

It comes as the financial fallout from the cancellation of live music events has been laid bare in a national report by events specialists Eventopedia, which estimates the annual loss from cancelled shows at three of Bristol’s music venues alone to be more than £2m.

The Fleece was one of the venues included in the report, but owner Chris Sharp believes the figure is actually far greater than the survey suggests.

“We have cancelled around 400 events at The Fleece if you include our weekly club nights as well as the gigs,” Chris tells Bristol24/7.

“We were one of the first businesses to close and will be one of the last to open.”

Bristol Beacon was lit up in October as part of a protest to highlight the plight of the events industry – photo by Colin Moody

Louise Mitchell, chief executive of Bristol Beacon, agrees the economic impact of events not being able to go ahead is significant. Based on figures from 2019, it is estimated the venue has lost £1m in gross income from ticket and bar sales.

“The pandemic has been devastating for so many industries and sectors, and none more so than the music and events industries,” says Louise.

“Whilst the Bristol Beacon is currently closed for the transformation programme, meaning that we had already planned for a reduction in income for a substantial period, we did have a schedule of around 200 annual events due to take place at other venues around the city.

“Thanks to emergency funding from the Arts Council England, venues will hopefully be able to survive the next challenging few months and focus on planning for the future, when we are able to hold bigger events once again. In the meantime, whilst the second lockdown has meant we have had to pause activities, we are working a number of smaller, COVID-safe events to ensure we are able to keep the music going.”

Eventopedia crunched the numbers for Bristol Beacon, The Fleece and O2 Academy, looking at the number of cancelled events between March 2020 and 2021, the average cost of a ticket and the venue’s capacity.

Commenting on the research, CEO of Eventopedia, Toby Heelis said the restrictions and shutdowns have had a devastating impact on cities across the country and said more support is needed from central government.

Exchange was set to reopen in November but then the second lockdown was announced – photo by Martin Booth

Matt is also urging people in Bristol to support music venues by donating if they are able to, sharing fundraising appeals and lobbying MPs for more support.

He says there had been plans to reopen the Exchange in November but then the second lockdown was announced.

“Thankfully we have been successful with some funding applications and had some reserves left over from our Community ownership campaign, so we are in a better position to weather the storm than most,” Matt tells Bristol24/7.

He continued: “It was great to see so many Bristol venues secure funding from the Culture Recovery Fund, but there are many other venues in the Music Venue Trust Bristol network who weren’t eligible to apply – many were sole traders and a couple hadn’t been trading for long enough to be considered.

“Many venues worked hard to adapt and were initially successful, but the 10pm curfew and the general bad press around the hospitality sector made things extremely difficult.

“Bristol is blessed with a good number of music venues, but they all play a vital part of our ecosystem, if all of the venues who weren’t funded fall away, then this will have a huge knock on effect to those remaining.

“From the outside the public may perceive that we are in competition with one another, but there is so much collaboration between us. Going forward it will likely take more support at government and local authority level alongside grassroots action from those who value these vital institutions in order to reopen every venue safely.”

Main image Otoboke Beaver at The Fleece, image by Phil Riley 

Read more: How to help Bristol’s independent venues – #saveourvenues