Culture secretary vows extra support for key music venues

Key music and cultural venues will receive extra support from the Scottish Government, culture secretary Fiona Hyslop has said.

Creative Scotland is identifying venues around the country to benefit from extra grants to help them through the coronavirus lockdown.

Ms Hyslop said during a virtual meeting of the Scottish Parliament on Friday that independent music venues will be among institutions benefiting from £45m in grants announced earlier.

Labour MSP Claire Baker asked about the issue, saying administrations in Cardiff and London have announced extra support for grassroots music venues.

She said: “With no performances our venues are facing an extremely difficult time during the lockdown and are vulnerable to collapse, which would result in Scotland losing its live music circuit.

“The business and culture support packages so far are not adequately meeting the needs of this sector.

“Will the cabinet secretary match the further support that’s been announced for London and Wales and look at providing a lifeline for music venues within Scotland?”

Ms Hyslop said efforts are being made to identify “pivotal” music venues and theatres in Scotland.

She said: “Creative Scotland will be part of the panel that will be helping identify those pivotal enterprises and they will have access to the £45m, which was part of the £100m scheme that was announced only yesterday.

“Those applications for the different streams of that scheme are now live.”

She added independent music venues that do not previously have a relationship with Creative Scotland would still be considered for the money.