Glastonbury joins over 2,700 cultural organizations in receiving over £400 million in grants, including Boomtown Fair Festival, Brixton Disco, Noisily, Highest Point, Camden Roundhouse, and many others. The grants serve as a part of the U.K. government’s £1.57 billion culture recovery fund.

“We’re extremely grateful to be offered a significant award from the Culture Recovery Fund,” said Glastonbury organizers Michael and Emily Eavis in a statement. “After losing millions from the cancellation of our last two festivals, this grant will make a huge difference in helping to secure our future.”

As with many other festivals and live music events, the 2020 and 2021 iterations of Glastonbury were cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Glastonbury organizers planned a five-hour live stream event in lieu of the festival as a means of raising funds for the losses suffered. That live stream event is slated to take place in May.

To learn more, visit Glastonbury Festival’s official website.

Each event will serve as a fundraiser to help Music Venue Trust support U.K. venues affected by the pandemic. Accompanying the announcement is a short teaser video giving fans information on what to expect from the seven broadcasts.

Fans will be able to enjoy performances from SHERELLE, Djrum, Tim Reaper, Skream, Crazy D, Batu, Shy One, and others. Some of the locations included in the citywide showcase are Royal Albert Hall, Tower Bridge, the London Coliseum, and of course, Fabric itself. The complete performance schedule with lists of locations and artists can be found in the link at the bottom of the page.

As noted in a blog post from the legendary London club, the event was made possible due to a grant awarded to them by Arts Council England. Back in October, they announced having received the grant and called it a “vital lifeline for us.”

Fabric and Arts Council England’s London Unlocked will kick off on March 14th, 2021 and run each Sunday until the final stream on April 25th, 2021. You can learn more about the upcoming live stream series and tune in to the broadcast on the nightclub’s official website.

For the uninitiated, locked groove records differ from your traditional vinyl in that each track on the record will continuously loop until the arm is physically moved to the next groove or track. As one would imagine, an entire album of locked grooves can make for a valuable tool in a DJ’s arsenal. An example of a locked groove record is demonstrated in the video below.

PLZ Make It Ruins and Arts Council England’s PLZ LOCKED GROOVES is set to release on Friday, December 4th. You can pre-order the upcoming charity compilation vinyl on the label’s website.

Among the Round 2 beneficiaries was Birmingham event brand Sundissential; a nearly 20-year-running hard dance club night that received £223,822. According to the Companies House listing for Sundissential Limited, however, the company was dormant from 2017-2019. Mixmag notes that on September 1st, just before the Culture Recovery Fund application deadline, the company filed new accounts and changed its principal business activity to “educational support services, performing arts, artistic creation and the operation of arts facilities.”

In response to complaints, the U.K. government organization promised to look into the matter. “Arts Council England has received a number of concerns about the Culture Recovery Fund grant awarded to this applicant, which we are actively investigating,” said a spokesperson. “While we investigate no payments have been made.”

The Facebook page for Sundissential appears to be offline. Prior to that, admins had had made a post thanking Arts Council England for the award. “The grant will support us to plan and deliver our 2021 25th Anniversary Event Program, ensuring (if necessary) we implement the relevant measures to ensure your safety at next year’s events whilst considering the current COVID-19 alert level,” it read.

This isn’t the first time the legitimacy of a Culture Recovery Fund grant has been called into question. In the same round of funding, Boiler Room received £791,652 despite posting net operating losses in the millions for both 2018 and 2019. In a statement emailed to Selector, a spokesperson on behalf of Arts Council England wrote, “The criteria to be awarded a grant are rigorous and we are confident we have applied them in all our decision making.”

Night Time Industries Association CEO Michael Kill said that “some culturally significant venues, events and supply chain businesses being missed off the awards, bringing into question the current criteria and assessment process.” London venues like Printworks, The Drumshed, Egg London, Studio 338, Oval Space, Exhibition London and The Pickle Factory all had their applications rejected.

To date, Arts Council England has paid out £427 million of the £500 million allocated for the Culture Recovery Fund.

In an open letter, Skiddle founders Ben Sebborn and Rich Dyer highlighted aspects of how their company has navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. As they don’t sell tickets in a physical outlet, lawmakers told them that their business did not qualify as “hospitality or cultural,” they said – so when the Culture Recovery Fund was announced, they didn’t seek out a grant.

“Skiddle took the decision not to apply, as we frankly did not fit the criteria as a cultural venue or host live events,” wrote Dyer and Sebborn. We felt, and still feel that the money was best distributed to the many thousands of amazing venues, promoters and arts organizations across the country that frankly, without you – Skiddle would be nothing.”

Dyer and Sebborn then took aim at similar organizations that applied for – and received – funding. “Imagine our sheer disgust then when the lists are published of who received grants, and amongst the many great people that received money, we see companies like Resident Advisor … or Ticketline … whilst at the same time some of the best venues and event creators in the country/the world were not successful as they ‘Didn’t fit the bill,’ they wrote.

Resident Advisor was awarded a grant for £750,000 in Round 1 of the Culture Recovery Fund, and Ticketline received $508,820 in Round 2. The latter announcement also revealed that Boiler Room had been allocated £791,652, which raised eyebrows as the broadcasting platform posted net losses in the millions for both 2018 and 2019.

In Round 3, which comprised of grants ranging from £1-3 million, Arts Council England awarded London nightclub Fabric £1,514,262.

Image credit: Skiddle

Of the 35 Round 3 recipients, Fabric Life Ltd was the only institution with a heavy focus on electronic music. Four other venues were awarded grants: Sage Gateshead parent company North Music Trust (£1.8 million), BH Live (£2.4 million), Performances Birmingham Ltd (£2.5 million), and ACC Liverpool Group (£2.9 million). The remaining recipients included museums, dance companies and theatre organizations, among others.

“We’re absolutely delighted to announce that we’ve been successful in our application for the Culture Recovery Fund,” reads a statement shared by Fabric. “We’re incredibly relieved to receive this support after what has been a very tense waiting period for everyone at fabric, and would like to express our gratitude to the Arts Council England team and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for the faith they’ve shown in us.”

“Like so many other cultural institutions around the world, the last eight months have been some of the most challenging in our lifespan,” the statement went on. “With our doors closed and no source of income to sustain ourselves, simply paying rent and maintaining a 1,500 person venue in Central London has placed enormous pressure and financial strain on us as a business.”

The sum awarded to Fabric was largely met with approval by U.K. electronic music stakeholders after a controversial first two rounds of aid. Grants given to Resident Advisor and Boiler Room (for £750,000 and £791,652, respectively) elicited outcry after it came to light that venues like Printworks, The Drumshed, Egg London, Studio 338, Oval Space , Exhibition London and The Pickle Factory were denied.

Arts Council England has also expanded upon the aid they offer to artists themselves. Their Developing your Creative Practice fund now includes DJs in its definition of “creative practitioner,” and applicants can receive grants of £2,000-10,000.

The full list of Round 3 Culture Recovery Fund recipients is available in Arts Council England’s data report.

Paradigm Agency is headquartered in London and was previously known as CODA Agency. In 2014, Los Angeles firm Paradigm Talent Agency acquired a 50% stake in the CODA, which then took its parent company’s name in 2019. Confusion stemming from the rebrand led U.K. culture stakeholders to question why Arts Council England would award almost £1 million to a U.S. company despite its criteria explicitly stating that Culture Recovery Fund grants are “only open to organisations based in England.”

Paradigm Talent Agency’s equity in Paradigm Agency might raise eyebrows nonetheless. Such was the case with Boiler Room, a private company that was awarded a £791,652 Culture Recovery Fund grant despite being founded in partnership with U.S. equity financing firm Conegliano Ventures. Further complicating the broadcasting platform’s aid was their dubious profitability; the company posted net losses in the millions for both 2018 and 2019.

Arts Council England has distributed £334 million of the £500 million allocated for the cultural recovery fund. All grants of more than £1 million will be announced in a future round.

In an October 17th data release, Arts Council England announced that a total of £76 million had been distributed to 589 organizations. Of the sum, Boiler Room (UK) Limited has been allocated £791,652. The grant was one of the biggest awarded in Round 2; only seven institutions received more to offset losses brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following the release, a financial statement filed by Boiler Room on August 4th (five days after the Culture Recovery Fund was announced) made its rounds on social media. According to the document, the company posted a net operating loss of £6,633,752 in 2018. They managed to shore up operations for 2019 fiscal year but still suffered another loss of £1,299,656.

Language in the Culture Recovery Fund criteria appears to disqualify institutions beleaguered by financial difficulty prior to the pandemic. “While we appreciate that the COVID-19 crisis will have impacted further on your financial situation, we are not able to accept applications from organizations to cover significant costs or debts incurred before the COVID-19 pandemic,” reads a passage.

In their statement, Boiler Room made note of the company’s ongoing financial setbacks and argued that “a strong calendar of events and the continued development of new partnerships and ideas” had set them up for a return to profitability in 2020-2021.

“Since the balance sheet date, the COVID-19 virus crisis has arisen and has disrupted the schedule of events, alongside some uncertainty over when events will be possible again…” they wrote. “…Although events are on hold this year, alongside the continued engagement of artists and communities, the support of our partners, utilizing government support where available and having considered the ability to meet liabilities of the business as they fall due, the directors conclude the company is well placed to weather the current social, political and economic headwinds.”

The grant raised red flags among stakeholders in electronic music culture nonetheless – in part due to Boiler Room’s controversial history with Arts Council England. In 2017, the government organization awarded the broadcaster a £297,298 Ambition For Excellence grant to organize live streams for the 2018 edition of Notting Hill Carnival as part of a broader mission to dispel a “negative media perception” around the event. The festival organizers themselves, meanwhile, were only given £100,000 for their role in the 2018 event by the Kensington and Chelsea council.

In an article for Colouring in Culture, Dr. Stephen Pritchard asserted that Boiler Room did not support the Creative Case for Diversity funding criteria. The private limited company, he noted, was founded in 2010 by Blaise Bellville and Caius Pawson with the help of U.S. equity financing firm Conegliano Ventures. Based on Bellville and Pawson’s family ties to the British elite, he made a case that the 2017 award constituted “colonialism and white, upper and middle-class privilege” as Notting Hill Carnival is often cited as one of the most significant events for Black British culture.

“The criteria to be awarded a grant are rigorous and we are confident we have applied them in all our decision making,” reads a statement emailed to Selector by Arts Council England. “Organizations offered funding had to demonstrate that their operations were sustainable prior to the pandemic, and that they are at risk of no longer trading viably by March 2021.”

“Boiler Room is a global live music digital platform, which was streaming from over 200 cities, had hosted performances from over 5,000 underground and established artists and was reaching over 70 million users a month,” it goes on. “This grant will allow Boiler Room to remain partially open, continue to create content and platform artists. The majority of their grant will go towards program delivery and paying artist fees. The organization will run a global digital nightclub, with tickets and membership subscription to live stream events, and produce digital content and merchandise to showcase emerging and established electronic music artists.”

Boiler Room has not responded to Selector‘s request for comment at the time of writing.

Left Out in the Cold

Perhaps more outrageous to those with a personal investment in U.K. dance culture is the list of organizations denied funding by Arts Council England. Decoded Magazine reports that London venues like Printworks, The Drumshed, Egg London, Studio 338, Oval Space, Exhibition London and The Pickle Factory had their applications rejected. Depot Mayfield in Manchester met a similar fate.

When Round 1 of the Culture Recovery Fund aid was announced on October 12th, a grant of £750,000 awarded to Resident Advisor sparked similar outcry. The ticketing platform and media outlet’s co-founder, Nick Sabine, responded to criticism by the likes of Dave Clarke and Mint Royale by revealing in a statement that the COVID-19 pandemic cost them 95% of their revenue and that 75% of the grant would go towards retaining permanent staff.

“We are shocked and dismayed that some of the key contemporary music venues, events and supply chain have been missed out of the cultural recovery fund, and with no clear understanding of the future, this has left many of them in an extremely difficult financial position,” wrote Night Time Industries Association CEO Michael Kill in a statement. “We have been aware all along that the fund would not be able to support everyone, and will leave many businesses who have missed out on this opportunity awaiting on a perilous cliff edge, but given the significance of some of the businesses that have been left out, we are concerned with regard to eligibility and fair consideration around the types of businesses and the criteria they have been measured against.”

Arts Council England will announce grants of over £1 million as part of a future round of funding. £166 million of the £500 million fund total remains to be distributed.

This article has been updated to include a statement from Arts Council England.

£18 million has been earmarked for the DYCP, which will be distributed over the next 12 months in four rounds. Grants range from £2,000-10,000, and a single applicant can request aid as many times as they want throughout the year (although they may sometimes be rejected).

Notably, Arts Council England have expanded their criteria to include DJs in their definition of “creative practicioner.” Also supported are arts and culture educators, community practitioners, movement directors, cultural conservators, creative enablers, and creative technicians. DYCP applicants now only need to have had one year of experience outside of an educational setting.

The expanded aid follows a controversial couple of weeks for U.K. lawmakers. Chancellor Rishi Sunak‘s remark during an ITV interview that some workers would need to “retrain and find new jobs” during the COVID-19 crisis elicited backlash from rival politicians and artists alike. The outcry prompted Sunak to reverse course and promise to expand on aid offered to businesses and workers.

More information on the Developing your Creative Practice fund can be found on the Arts Council England website.

Image credit: Brandon Erlinger-Ford

As promised, numerous grants have been awarded to U.K. electronic music organizations. Among them are notable London venues like Ministry of Sound, Village Underground, and Corsica Studios as well as publications like Resident Advisor, The Ransom Note, and Crack Magazine. Roughly 75 times as much aid has been disbursed since the last time Arts Council England provided an update over a month ago.

All of the recipients thus far have been awarded grants in amounts of less than £1 million. Applications for larger amounts will be processed in a separate round of funding.

The relief arrives at a time when inaction by the U.K. government elicited harsh criticism from the nightlife community and beyond. Sunak’s comment during an ITV interview that workers must “retrain and find new jobs” drew the ire of rival politicians and artists alike, with owners of establishments already tense over recently imposed countrywide bar and nightclub curfews.

“The announcement of recipients of the Cultural Recovery Fund by the Arts Council, has been long awaited with many relying heavily on the outcome of this funding allocation for several weeks,” said Night Time Industries Association CEO Michael Kill in a statement.

“We have seen some success for businesses in live music, events, supply chain and some venues, but with very limited numbers of dance music clubs and events receiving funding and we hope the ones that have not been successful will be considered for further funding opportunities in the future,” he went on. “We have been aware all along that the fund would not be able to support everyone, and will leave many businesses who have missed out on this opportunity awaiting on a perilous cliff edge, which will result in further redundancies in the coming weeks. We need the Government to step up and support our sector.”

The full list of Culture Recovery Fund recipients thus far is available on the Arts Council England website.

Image credit: Josh Gordon