THE RISING Sun Arts Centre was one of the venues leading the charge in its work with Independent Venues Week, but is experiencing difficulty like many venues around the country.
Following the pandemic, live venues were hit by financial difficulty, and many are yet to recover if they haven’t already had to close.
Larry Watson, manager of the Rising Sun, said: “We are scraping by, in terms of our financial situation, which makes it incredibly hard to invest or look ahead to problems we know we’re going to face.
“It’s so difficult for us to save anything to be able to deal with things like that.
“We’re also terribly understaffed, which means those that are here are very stressed, and we really rely on volunteers.
“While our volunteers mean we have a great community and are up for taking this on, because we’re doing the work they want to see, it also means we rely on them.”
He explains that The Rising Sun Arts Centre is walking a fine balance as a non-commercial organisation.
“I think we could easily say that we want more support from the government, be it grants or rate relief or whatever, anything would help, as would further support from the council.
“But for us, we know what that means, and making those much more commercial decisions wouldn’t benefit us in the long run.
“Because there’s a lot less ‘buy-in’ from volunteers, we have to walk a fine balance in getting volunteers on board.
“We’re not focused on being a commercial project, I really don’t know what kind of additional support we could think of getting.”
Larry adds that even direct support wouldn’t necessarily solve the long-term problems faced by the industry.
“If we were to look at support from the government or the council, it would be our community and arts work which we would make a case for, rather than, say, our work as a music venue.
“So what would benefit us is if people were more able to go out and see live events, and anything that the industry could do to improve the situation generally.”
He explains that the contribution to a local community is difficult to quantify from independent venues.
“I think independent venues are incredibly important, having somewhere that can put on artists and musicians and nurture them, even a little bit, is vital.
“They’re the starting point for a lot of artists– everyone has to start somewhere, and I’m constantly amazed by the variety and the talent that we see.
“There is a community built up around them, which is supportive and fosters their talent– I think independent venues do it best, because that’s where their heart lies.
“It’s hard to imagine what the UK music scene would look like without them.”
Despite the uncertainty in the industry, he added that the loss of independent venues is always has a significant cultural impact.
“There are amazing places up and down the country; small venues which are incredibly beloved by their communities.
“When small or independent venues are lost, those communities are really negatively affected.
“It seems to me a very cost effective thing which just doesn’t get the support it needs, really.
“More support would be a great thing, but it’s hard to quantify– they give so much more back to the culture than the resources which go into them.”
