Artists who can’t to tour invited to apply for latest in £300k funding: “An even bigger step to making live music more inclusive”

UK artists who are struggling to afford to tour have one last chance to apply for the latest round of cash from the Featured Artists Coalition’s UKAT fund – aiming to take “even bigger step to making live music more inclusive”.

Back in March, the FAC launched their first phase of offering up grants from a “seriously game-changing” £125,000 fund to help beat “the cost of touring crisis”. In partnership with Music Managers Forum (MMF) and the Musicians’ Union (MU), the programme was funded by money collected from LIVE Trust in donations as part of a voluntary “levy” ticket contributions from the likes of Harry Styles , Radiohead , Lorde, Kasabian, Wolf Alice , and many more.

The LIVE Trust have distributed more than £500,000 so far via this and other ambitious schemes involving Music Venue Trust , with millions more said to be on the way.

Now, artists have until 11.59pm on Sunday September 13 to submit a proposal for a share of an increased £300,000 total, to provide them with “top up” financial support to cover shortfalls in their touring budgets.

“We were very happy with what we accomplished in phase one, given that we entered into the great unknown with the concept,” FAC CEO David Martin told NME . “We had to set out to prove what we wanted to achieve. We proved that the demand for it was enormous and how far £125,000 could go. We funded artists from a massive range of genres: 26 artists, 211 shows and an audience reach of 60,000. The economic activity that it unlocked was massive. That top-up model works.

“We were honest that we weren’t going to solve all the problems in one go, but we want to take the sector on the journey with us.”

Now, as part of phase two, artists can apply for up to a maximum of £8,000 (or up to a maximum of 40 per cent of total eligible tour expenditure – whichever is lower), to fund a combination of headline, support and festival shows. Unconfirmed/tentative show bookings (which must be confirmed prior to the award of funds) can also be included in funding applications.

“This is particularly important in allowing those who just don’t embark on tours because they can’t afford to make a loss to play,” Martin continued. “Those from working class backgrounds who can’t afford to lose £2,000 can now line their shows up, find out if they’ve got the funding and then pull the trigger.