Music Venue Trust and PRS Foundation Announce New Support for Young Women Promoters

Music Venue Trust and PRS Foundation are delighted to announce a new partnership to encourage more young women and gender minorities to break into promoting live music. Building on the success of the Fightback:Grassroots Promoterpilot project in 2018, this phase of FB:GP will offer a whole raft of training, mentoring and practical support to young women and gender minorities who are passionate about live music and want to learn the skills to become an independent promoter. Applications open in September and participants will work towards shows in grassroots music venues across the UK in spring 2020. The project will be managed by Music Venue Trust and is supported by PRS Foundation.

In the past couple of years there has been a lot of discussion of the need to offer more opportunities for women, trans and non-binary artists. Alongside this, a change in the make-up of the bookers and promoters of live music events is needed to ensure that the rich diversity of music in the UK is represented and shared with audiences. The pilot phase demonstrated that new promoters with fresh ideas tend to bring forward exciting and sometimes surprising line-ups, offering opportunities for artists to play in venues they might not previously have had a relationship with.

Grassroots Music Venues are always looking for new young promoters with energy and ideas, but women and gender minorities do not always feel empowered to put themselves forward. Young people who want to promote a show are often put off by the financial risk or the lack of information about who to speak to, how to get the best deal, or what connections they need. FB:GP will equip new and early career promoters with that knowledge and give them the skills they need to embark on a career in promoting. The project will also underwrite any shows that make a loss, removing the financial stress to ensure the promoters can focus on putting on the best show they can.