MLM Concerts Ltd receives lifeline grant from Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund
MLM Concerts Ltd has been awarded £125,000 as part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to help face the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure they have a sustainable future, the Culture Secretary has announced today.
MLM Concerts Ltd is one of 588 cultural and creative organisations across the country receiving urgently needed support – with £76 million of investment announced this weekend. This follows £257 million awarded earlier in the week to 1,385 organisations, also from the Culture Recovery Fund grants programme being administered by Arts Council England on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Further rounds of funding in the cultural and heritage sector are due to be announced over the coming weeks.
MLM Team in Christchurch, Dorset
MLM Concerts Ltd was founded in 2009 by Mark Lundquist. Mark and his team, Gemma Lawson and Nikki Barden, book festivals for major artistes, such as Procol Harum, Toploader, Kenney Jones, Jim Cregan, Roy Hemmings’ Motown Show, JOANovARC, Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers and T.Rextasy.
The main core of our work, however, is our theatre shows. We tour over 250 UK dates per year for major and hugely successful productions – including The King is Back; Hello Again…A Tribute to Neil Diamond; The Cavern Beatles; The Simon & Garfunkel Story and many others.
We work closely with shows, artistes and venues booking dates for touring periods. Due to Coronavirus all our artistes and productions have been ‘off the road’ as venues have been closed indefinitely, and the revenue streams for the arts, culture and leisure sector have effectively ground to a halt.
Despite these challenges, we have continued to operate an extremely busy office focusing on the enormous administrative tasks of rescheduling dates from 2020 into the upcoming years. Incredibly, most of our dates have been able to be moved to a later date with very few cancellations. In addition, we have secured more than 60 new dates for our artistes since lockdown started in March 2020 – quite an achievement which will ensure they are able to continue bringing people together to delight in the magic of live music, live theatre and the performing arts well into 2022, 2023 and beyond.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said:
“This is more vital funding to protect cultural gems across the country, save jobs and prepare the arts to bounce back. Through Arts Council England we are delivering the biggest ever investment in the arts in record time. Hundreds of millions of pounds are already making their way to thousands of organisations.
“These awards build on our commitment to be here for culture in every part of the country.”
Chair, Arts Council England, Sir Nicholas Serota, said:
“Culture is an essential part of life across the country, helping to support people’s wellbeing through creativity and self-expression, bringing communities together, and fuelling our world class creative industries.
“This latest set of awards from the Culture Recovery Fund builds on those announced recently and will help hundreds of organisations to survive the next few months, ensuring that the cultural sector can bounce back after the crisis. We will continue doing everything we can to support artists and cultural and creative organisations, with further funding to be announced in the coming weeks.”
Mark Lundquist (Director, MLM Concerts Ltd) said “I appreciate the Government’s support for our industry and am delighted with the award.”
