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# 142K fans who bought tickets stayed home as UK concert attendance dropped 27% last week
- URL: https://www.hypebot.com/142k-fans-who-bought-tickets-stayed-home-as-uk-concert-attendance-dropped-27-last-week/
- Published: 2021-12-15T14:24:16.000Z
- Updated: 2021-12-15T14:30:43.000Z
- Description: A “catastrophic drop” in attendance, advance ticket sales and spend per attendee has hit music venues on the UK and many fear a similar US decline as a new strain. Continue reading [https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2021/12/142k-fans-who-bought-tickets-stayed-home-as-uk-concert-attendance-dropped-27-l
- Author: Bruce Houghton
- Tags: Live & Ticketing, Music Business, concerts, Music Venue Trust, UK, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-01-21 09:48

A “catastrophic drop” in attendance, advance ticket sales and spend per attendee has hit music venues on the UK and many fear a similar US decline as a new strain of the virus spreads here.

#### ***“haemorrhaging money at a rate that will inevitably result in permanent closures”***

A survey by the Music Venue trust looked at the last week since the UK Government announced the implementation of new Plan B COVID restrictions.

**Key findings:**

- **Attendance dropped 23%** in one week since Plan B announcement
- **79.2%** of UK grassroots venues saw **an increase in no shows** (advance ticket buyers who did not attend a show) in the week of 6-13 December. The average no show increase was 23.1%
- *A*n estimated **142,772 ticket holders** failed to attend
- The decline resulted in a **27% decline in gross income**
- Future **income from future ticket sales also declined by 27%** “as gig goers’ confidence was shattered by a series of government announcements on the Omicron variant”

Losses across the live venae sector in this first week of this new phase of the Covid crisis hit nearly £2million, with 86% of grassroots music venues reporting negative impacts and 61% having to cancel at least one event in the week of 6-13 December.

**The top causes of cancellations were:**

- a performer/member of the touring party testing positive for Covid-19 (35.6%)
- private hire bookings cancelled by the organiser (31.3% – especially Christmas Parties)
- poor sales performance (23.6%).

“It feels like we are back exactly where we were in March 2020, when confusing government messaging created a ‘stealth lockdown’ – venues apparently able to open but in reality haemorrhaging money at a rate that will inevitably result in permanent closures unless the government acts quickly to prevent it,” said **Mark Davyd, CEO of the Music Venue Trust**

The Music Venue Trust is calling for Nadine Dorries, Secretary of State for Culture to immediately create a stabilization fund to protect the sector. A substantial portion of the £1.7 billion Culture Recovery Fund remains unspent and unallocated.

**Bruce Houghton* is Founder and Editor of [Hypebot](https://www.hypebot.com/) and [MusicThinkTank](http://www.musicthinktank.com/?ref=hypebot.com) and serves as a Senior Advisor to [Bandsintown](https://www.bandsintown.com/?ref=hypebot.com) which acquired both publications in 2019\. He is the Founder and President of the[ Skyline Artists Agency](https://skylineonline.com/?ref=hypebot.com) and a professor for the [Berklee College Of Music](https://online.berklee.edu/courses/touring-101?ref=hypebot.com).*