Crowfunding campaign under way to help revive thriving rural arts scene
A crowdfunding campaign is under way to help ensure that music, dance, drama and comedy events are able to return to the Highlands and Islands when restrictions on events are eventually lifted.
Promoters are hoping to raise up to £20,000 to ensure that performances are still viable and artists can be properly paid when normal capacities of venues have to be cut due to social distancing.
The campaign is aimed at reviving a rural arts scene which saw nearly 900 events staged across around half the land mass of Scotland last year, in venues as far afield as Shetland and Campbeltown.
The Touring Network, the organisation behind the campaign is hoping to persuade people to donate the equivalent price of an interval drink or the price of a ticket.
Its Keep Rural Arts Live campaign also includes packages targeted at local businesses and organisations, equivalent to the cost of a performer’s fee or their overnight accommodation.”
A spokeswoman said: “The Keep Rural Arts Live fundraising drive will ensure that it will be affordable, safe and sustainable for professional artists to perform across the Highlands & Islands, and for audiences to come out to watch them. The fund will directly help subsidise any potential lost ticket income due to socially distanced reduced capacity, meaning performers and their crews won’t be out of pocket, it will ensure tickets remain affordable for the whole community without substantial pricing increases, it will help a vital part of the economy to stay buoyant by continuing to welcome companies and the money they spend in terms of venue hire, accommodation, hospitality and more, and it will offer invaluable opportunities for up-and-coming local talent to share the stage with some of the biggest names in the Scottish and UK arts scenes.”