MP lobbies government to save live music venues in Milton Keynes from lockdown closure

Venues all over MK are struggling to survive lockdown and, with no plans to allow them to re-open, they fear they may not survive.

Mr Everitt has this week written to Oliver Dowden, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, requesting support for places such as MK Theatre, the Craufurd Arms, MK11 Live Music Venue and The Stables.

He said: “Milton Keynes is lucky to have so many independent live music and entertainment venues, we must do everything we can to ensure their short-term and long-term survival."

Some MK venues such as Wolveton's Craufurd Arms and MK11 on Kiln Farm have launched their own crowdfunding appeals to help them stay open.

Several more local clubs and pubs are among hundreds of UK grassroots music venues to sign an open letter by the Music Venue Trust to the government calling for an emergency £50m of funding to allow them to “hibernate” until October due to the restrictions caused by coronavirus

Last week Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a further easing of lockdown measures from July 4, allowing for pubs, restaurants, hotels, and more businesses within the leisure industry to re-open as long as social distancing can be maintained.

However, music venues are not among these permitted places and it is unlikely they will will be allowed to re-open before the Autumn because singing, dancing, standing close to others and being in confined spaces are all deemed to be high risk activities.

The Music Venue Trust says unless a cash injection is given to save the “world-beating £5.2 billion per year music industry, many of the venues will not survive.

MVT CEO Mark Davyd told the NME: “These venues are wholesale going to be closed if the government does not act. No amount of social distancing or any other daft measures that the government has come up with is going to make any difference.

“The four pillars of the government’s health policy is that singing is dangerous, dancing is dangerous, being in a confined space is dangerous, and being close to people is dangerous. Ipso facto, live music is dangerous and there is no point on doing guidance on how you can do it if you stay inside your car, if you don’t enjoy it too much, if you don’t sing out loud or if you keep so many metres away from someone.”

Mark added: “It’s completely pointless and the government needs to reset the parameters. The venues are all agreed that they will not be open in July, August or September. The government needs to re-examine the public health guidelines, they need to think about whether venues can open if everyone within them is guaranteed not to have the virus, bringing in things like testing, temperature checks and infection-free zones. These things aren’t in place but may well be by October.”

Mr Everitt said: "The government has already offered a tremendous amount of support across different sectors during the coronavirus pandemic so I hope they’ll be able to support our entertainment sector.

“We need to ensure businesses can bounce back when restrictions are lifted so people still have jobs, businesses still make money and people have places they can look forward to enjoying an evening out.”