Glastonbury Festival gets grant as part of £400m Culture Recovery Fund

Glastonbury Festival will receive a £900,000 grant as part of the government’s £400 million Culture Recovery Fund.

The festival was forced to cancel two events due to the pandemic and has announced a global livestream this year, on the first weekend music venues can reopen.

Its co-organisers Michael and Emily Eavis said they were “extremely grateful to be offered a significant award”.

“After losing millions from the cancellation of our last two festivals, this grant will make a huge difference in helping to secure our future,” they said.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said the money will help the event this year and carry it through to 2022.

More than 2,700 organisations are being offered grants and loans in the latest announcement.

Around £300m in grants have been awarded to recipients including Glastonbury, the National Football Museum and Bamburgh Castle.

More than £170m in loans has been offered to organisations including the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “Our record-breaking Culture Recovery Fund has already helped thousands of culture and heritage organisations across the country survive the biggest crisis they’ve ever faced.

“Now we’re staying by their side as they prepare to welcome the public back through their doors – helping our cultural gems plan for reopening and (to) thrive in the better times ahead.”

Recipients of new loans will include the English Heritage Trust, The Lowry and The Sage Gateshead.

A further £6.5m has been awarded to independent cinemas, including £138,333 for East Finchley’s Phoenix Cinema, Britain’s oldest cinema in continuous use and where Dame Judi Dench is a patron.

Dame Judi said: “Local cinemas are a vital part of our cultural lives, enthralling us with films about lives that we recognise as well as offering us stories about other cultures from around the world.

“They are places where people come together for a shared experience and have inspired many to make their careers on screen. We need to make sure that generations today and in the future have the same opportunities to enjoy and take part in the communal big screen experience.”

Grants worth almost £60m have been awarded to help theatres, from the West End’s Criterion Theatre to the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, plan for reopening.

Museums will receive more than £25m in this latest round of funding.

Brighton venue Komedia, the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds and the Camden Roundhouse are among comedy clubs and music venues receiving funding.

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The announcement brings the government’s total investment across grants, capital and repayable finance from the Culture Recovery Fund so far to more than £1.2bn across more than 5,000 individual cultural and heritage organisations and sites.

Charity Theatres Trust welcomed further help for theatres in England, with director Jon Morgan saying: “Theatres have had to remain closed for far longer than anyone could have anticipated, so quite rightly there are theatre organisations receiving additional grants in recognition of that.

“Before the pandemic hit, theatres played an important role in communities everywhere. More than 34 million people attend theatres in the UK each year, generating £1.28 billion in ticket revenue.

“It is crucial to the social, cultural and economic wellbeing of the country that our theatres survive this crisis and can contribute to its recovery. It is therefore important that theatres continue to receive support until they can reopen viably.”

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