LIVE Trust:  £5m funding on the horizon

Yet another landmark week for the LIVE Trust as trustees met to review the success of Phase One funding, which saw £500k distributed across seven organisations supporting grassroots music in the UK.  Excitingly, as a result of more major tours coming on board, trustees are now confident that the Trust will receive a further £5million to distribute across 2026.  Such a meaningful sum is only possible thanks to the support of our industry and will allow unprecedented levels of intervention to initiate, expand and accelerate programmes supporting our venues and festivals, artists and their teams, production and more.

For a simple primer on the Trust go here.  With funds coming from a £1 per ticket contribution on shows over 5000 capacity, we are able to protect, expand, and support grassroots music across the UK.  And sign up to our mailing list to be the first to here about plans for further funding rounds throughout the year.

LIVE presents at CPA AGM

In what has now become an annual appointment, LIVE’s Jon Collins provided an update to the Concert Promoters Association AGM on all things LIVE and LIVE Trust.  In a whistlestop tour of both organisations, Jon covered sector numbers, the recent Treasury decision on business rates (a defining moment for live music venues), the Music Growth Package, planned secondary ticketing legislation and the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act which comes into force next year.  

As expected, a key part of the session was devoted to the LIVE Trust, the excellent progress to date, Phase One funding recipients and plans for the rest of 2026.  Given the pivotal role promoters have played (and will play) in advocating for and implementing the £ for LIVE Trust, Jon appreciated the opportunity to brief the room firsthand.

LIVE Workforce: Building skills and strengthening pathways into live music

The LIVE Workforce group came together on Monday for a productive session focused on one of the most pressing issues facing our sector: how we attract, train and retain the next generation of talent while supporting today’s workforce to continually develop new skills.

We were pleased to welcome MUTI Live, with guest speaker Nick Young-Wolfe leading an engaging discussion on apprenticeships, entry routes into the industry, and the practical steps employers can take to create clearer, more accessible career pathways.

The conversation explored how structured apprenticeships and on-the-job training can open doors for new entrants, while also giving existing teams opportunities to upskill and progress. Members shared challenges and best practice, from developing technical skills backstage to building leadership capacity and improving long-term retention across the live music workforce.

A key takeaway was that investing in people isn’t just good practice, it’s essential to building a more resilient, sustainable sector. By collaborating as an industry and learning from specialist training providers, we can create routes that are inclusive, affordable, scalable and fit for the realities of live events.

To find out more about MUTI Live and their training programmes, visit their website.

LIVE hosts International Summit

LIVE’s Gaby Cartwright and Jon Collins were, once again, delighted to join with BDKV’s Johanne Everke to co-chair the annual International Association Summit that takes place the afternoon before ILMC.  With live music representatives from four continents and over a dozen countries, this was a tremendous opportunity to discuss common challenges and opportunities.  Topics discussed included supporting the grassroots, tackling secondary ticketing and the increasing challenges of touring internationally in a world with hardening borders.

LIVE out in force at EPS

The Event Production Show was, once again, a vibrant reminder of the creativity, innovation and professionalism of the events sector.  And, as ever, the seminar programme provided an opportunity to discuss so many relevant issues of the day.  LIVE Green lead, Ross Patel joined, Alex Fintoni, A Greener Future, Chris Johnson, Vision for Sustainable Events and Vikki Chapman, Live Nation to discuss what the  Show Must Go On report means for sustainable events.

LIVE Trust’s Antonia Lines joined a panel with LIVE Board member John Rostron, AIF, to discuss investing in festival futures.  The session was a perfect opportunity to set out how LIVE Trust and AIF are working together to offer new levels of support to the UK’s smallest festivals.  They were joined by the brilliant George Follett, Ticket Tailor and Hannah Deeble from Arts Council England (who somehow also finds the time to deliver the phenomenal Hastings Fat Tuesday festival).

And the conference programme was rounded off as Jon Collins joined Access All Area’s Chris Barrett, Matthew Phillip of Notting Hill Carnival (and Chair, AIF) and IVW’s Sybil Bell to discuss how we can grow the grassroots.  A very positive session given the exciting work of LIVE Trust.