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Market Report: UK Grassroots Music Venues In Numbers
January26
This market report provides an overview of the UK grassroots music venue (GMV) market, based on findings from the Annual Report 2025 published by Music Venue Trust (MVT). The data offers a snapshot of venue numbers, employment, touring activity and financial performance across the UK grassroots live music ecosystem.
According to the report, the UK grassroots market comprised 801 active venues across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2025, down from 810 a year earlier. While the rate of decline has slowed compared with previous years, 30 venues permanently closed during the reporting period, underlining the sector’s ongoing fragility .
Financial sustainability remains the core challenge. MVT reports that 53.8% of grassroots venues recorded no profit in the past 12 months, with average profit margins holding at just 2.5%. Although total sector turnover increased to £558.5 million in 2025, rising operating and employment costs continued to erode profitability, leaving many venues with minimal financial headroom .
Employment across the sector contracted sharply. Total jobs at GMVs fell from 30,865 to 24,742, representing a 19.8% year-on-year reduction. Venue operators cited higher employer National Insurance contributions and reduced business rates relief as key drivers behind staff cuts, as venues opted to reduce headcount rather than increase ticket prices .
Despite these pressures, the sector remains highly active. In 2025, GMVs delivered 174,552 events, attracted 21.7 million audience visits, and hosted more than 1.05 million individual artist performances. Average venue capacity stood at 316, with ticketed events drawing an average audience of 122 people per show. However, live music itself continued to be loss-making, with venues collectively subsidising live performance by £76.6 million during the year .
Touring activity continued to contract geographically. MVT’s analysis shows that 59% of UK grassroots venues were excluded from significant national tour routings in 2025. As a result, more than 175 towns and cities, representing an estimated 35 million people, no longer receive regular touring shows by professional artists, concentrating touring income in a limited number of major urban markets .
Overall, the report concludes that while audience demand and activity levels have stabilised, the UK grassroots music venue market remains structurally vulnerable. Persistently low margins, rising employment costs and reduced touring access continue to place pressure on profits and jobs, reinforcing calls for long-term policy and industry interventions to secure the sector’s future .
Read the full report here
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