Fabric receives £1.5million in latest round of Culture Recovery Fund

Iconic London nightclub Fabric has received £1.5million as part of the latest round of the government’s Culture Recovery Fund.

The £1.57billion bailout fund for the arts sector was announced earlier this year, and the latest round of grants has seen £75m given to 35 organisations.

Five music venues are included in the new grants. Alongside Fabric, money will go to BH Live in Bournemouth (£2.4m), the North Music Trust, who run the Sage venue in Gateshead (£1.8m), Performances Birmingham Ltd (£2.5m), and the ACC Liverpool Group (£2.9m).

“We’re delighted to announce that we’ve been successful in our application for the Culture Recovery Fund,” Fabric wrote on Twitter. “We would like to express our gratitude to Ar ts Council England and DCMS (the government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) for the faith they’ve shown in us.”

We’re delighted to announce that we’ve been successful in our application for the Culture Recovery Fund. We would like to express our gratitude to @ace_national and @DCMS for the faith they’ve shown in us. #HereForCulture
Read more via our website: https://t.co/fbqCFoFpP0 pic.twitter.com/zDjkqHGDhH

— fabriclondon (@fabriclondon) October 24, 2020

The news follows criticism from the dance industry after many of its most prominent venues were denied funding in previous rounds of the Culture Recovery Fund, saying nightclubs were left “trying to rebalance the unjust”.

While it emerged that 89% of England’s grassroots music venues who applied for their share of the £1.57billion bailout had been successful, Printworks, The Egg, Studio 338, Oval Space and The Pickle Factory were among the most notable venues to be denied financial assistance, and are still yet to receive funding.

While certain dance music institutions and organisations were awarded a grant, including Ministry Of Sound who gained £975,468 and Boiler Room who were awarded £791,562, others left out in the cold say that the application process did not give them a chance to sufficiently express their cultural worth.

Earlier this month, the music industry celebrated after over 1,000 venues, festivals and theatres were awarded money as part of the Cultural Recovery Fund, helping them to survive until April and weather the storm of closures and complications brought on by the coronavirus pandemic – before a second round of funding was announced later, rescuing another wave of arts spaces and organisations.

Speaking to NME recently about the exclusion of many dance venues from government funding, Night Time Industries Association CEO Michael Kill said: “£1.57 billion will never be enough, but to do this on an arts and cultural application format doesn’t work.

“If you’re the Royal Albert Hall you have a stronger case than a contemporary arts or music venue, because of the background and history there. Our concern is that these people have been missed, along with hundreds of others across the country.”