Marshall Arts alongside thousands of artists, venues, crew and industry figures, are today issuing an urgent plea for support from the UK Government during what would have been the UK’s world-famous festival season.

The call to government comes as new research commissioned by the industry demonstrates the vital economic contribution of the live music sector. As well as supporting 210,000 jobs across the country, venues, concerts, festivals and production companies added £4.5bn to the economy in 2019.

But, because they’re unable to operate with any level of social distancing, concerts and festivals are unlikely to take place again in the UK until 2021 at the earliest. Many hundreds of redundancies have already been made, with the potential for tens of thousands to follow this year.

In a joint letter to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden, the industry say:

To coincide with the letter, hundreds of artists, venues, concerts, festivals, production companies and other people across the industry will today begin posting films and photos of their last live gig under the banner #LetTheMusicPlay. Fans will also be encouraged to post about the last gig they went to, all in a mass show of support for the UK’s world-leading live music industry during its shutdown. Please lend your support.