FAC's UK Artist Touring fund is now live
The FAC is delighted to announce that our new UK Artist Touring Fund (UKAT Fund) is now open for applications.
In partnership with the Music Managers Forum (MMF) and the Musicians’ Union (MU), UKAT was established in response to the ongoing “cost of touring crisis” in grassroots live music.
This crisis received wider recognition following publication of a landmark 2024 Parliamentary report by the Culture Media & Sport Committee, which also identified the specific challenges faced by artists and musicians. As well as providing the talent that fills stages and attracts audiences, artists are the biggest employers in live music while facing some of the sector’s most significant financial burdens.
These pressures are particularly acute for those playing in small and medium-sized venues, where the costs of performance, travel and accommodation are rarely covered by ticket sales or guarantees.
UKAT aims to help alleviate these challenges by providing strategic “top-up” contributions to reduce genuine shortfalls in artist touring budgets - helping reduce financial risk, build new audiences, develop careers, ensure everyone in the live supply chain is paid and keep more shows on the road.
Initially, UKAT will distribute proceeds of £125,000 collected by the LIVE Trust as part of a voluntary ticket contribution applied on arena and stadium shows for artists including Harry Styles, Radiohead, Lily Allen, Olivia Dean, Wolf Alice, Biffy Clyro, Ed Sheeran, Take That, The Cure, Kojey Radical and Foo Fighters.
This rapid-response Phase One of UKAT will be open to UK-based artists performing domestic headline tours in small to mid-sized venues. These shows must take place before October 31st 2026, and the majority must be promoter-booked with guarantees.
Further details are provided below.
Our aim is to work quickly and transparently within these confines, and to deliver the maximum impact by supporting as many artists as possible across the widest range of genres. Based on the learnings and insights accumulated, we anticipate that later editions of UKAT will evolve and expand accordingly.
David Martin, CEO, Featured Artists Coalition:
“Live music is the absolute bedrock of the UK’s vibrant music culture. We have some of the world’s greatest venues, clubs and festivals, we have amazing audiences - and yet too many of our artists face debilitating financial losses when they head out on tour.
“By providing strategic top-up support, the UKAT Fund gives us an opportunity to change that narrative - to help artists build for the future and expand their touring activity, to provide breathing space for creative development and to ensure improved working practices.
“Beyond this initial Phase One, our ambition is to create a positive ripple effect across the entire sector and provide a long-term solution for making grassroots live touring more sustainable. I would like to put on record my thanks to all who’ve helped us get UKAT off the ground, especially the MMF, the MU, the LIVE Trust, LIVE, UK Music, Arts Council England and, most importantly, all the artists and teams who have contributed so generously to the Trust and the fans who've bought tickets to their shows.
"Although we won't have the resources to support every application on this first run, I strongly urge anyone in the artist community who thinks they qualify - whether they’re a solo act, a band or a DJ - to apply and to work with us on developing and evolving this initiative.
David Rowntree, Chair, Featured Artists Coalition:
"Because of the LIVE Trust, we now have a system where revenue can flow from some of the UK's largest shows towards some of the smallest. That's a wonderful thing, and something I think most music fans will support - especially if it means helping a new generation of artists, and reducing some of the insane financial pressures they face when touring. The UK Artist Touring fund provides a vehicle for us to do that, and I'm immensely proud that the FAC is leading at the heart of this process."
Applications for Phase One of the UKAT Fund are encouraged from artists of all genres - or their representatives - that meet the following basic criteria:
Applicants must be 18+, UK residents and have released new original music within the past three years.
Applicants can apply for up to £7,000 or a maximum of 40% of total eligible tour expenditure - whichever is lower.
To qualify, tours must have a minimum of 3 UK headline shows in venues of between 75 and 2,000 capacity.
At least 75% of dates must be promoter-booked with guarantees, with no more than 25% self-promoted or dry-hire.
Shows must be completed by 31st October 2026.
Applicants must provide evidence of a financial shortfall between the costs of delivering these shows and the projected income from guarantees and fees.
All artists, musicians, managers and crew involved must receive fair and reasonable pay - covering show days, travel days and rehearsal time.
An additional Access Fund is also available to help cover access-related, caring or childcare costs.
Full application criteria for the UKAT Fund can be found here on the FAC website.
Submissions must be received by 23.59pm on Friday 20th March.
Annabella Coldrick, Chief Executive, Music Managers Forum:
"I am delighted that the MMF has played a key role with the FAC and MU in developing UKAT. This provides a real opportunity to fix the broken model of grassroots live music, where artists are frequently overburdened by costs and their managers work long uncompensated hours on loss-making tours. By granting targeted tour support, our ambition is to relieve some of those financial pressures - allowing artists to focus on building their audiences, while ensuring everyone supporting this work, including managers, are paid fairly for their expertise and time."
Kelly Wood, National Organiser Live, Theatre & Music Writers, Musicians’ Union:
“The tight financial margins of grassroots live touring mean that artists are frequently forced into compromises and cutbacks to ensure that shows take place. Inevitably, this puts a squeeze on the rest of the sector, and especially on the livelihoods of session musicians.
“With UKAT, we have an opportunity to rewrite the rulebook - to ensure more live tours can operate sustainably, to foster greater collaboration, and ensure principles of fair pay are hardwired at every level. Today’s announcement marks an exciting first step in this process, and we look forward to working with the FAC and MMF to ensure the fund can evolve progressively and deliver the maximum possible benefit to everyone involved in grassroots live music.”
Estelle Wilkinson, Trustee, LIVE Trust:
“The LIVE Trust warmly welcomes today's announcement by the FAC, MMF and MU. The whole purpose of collecting a £1 per ticket contribution on shows over a 5,000 capacity is to support the UK's grassroots music ecosystem in its entirety. We believe the UKAT Fund has real potential to deliver on those objectives - ensuring more artists can tour without tipping into debt, more session musicians can be hired, more venues can be booked, and everyone involved in putting on a show can be paid fairly. We look forward to watching the fund evolve and develop beyond this initial launch phase.”
CASE STUDIES:
CASE STUDY ONE - BAND
In 2025, we embarked on our first official headline tour. It was a 10 day tour with 7 shows and 3 travel days, with an 8 person touring party. The venues we played were all independent UK venues around 150 to 350 capacity. We were signed to a major label at the time, and our contract included a tour support fund, however this was rarely paid sooner than 6 months after completion of the tour and sometimes not at all.
This caused a never ending cycle of debt due to band members front ending the costs of booking accommodation, van hire, session musician and crew costs with money we didn’t have. Prior to solely relying on tour support, we relied on our initial advance, which quickly depleted after previous touring, band members taking monthly allowance (which was less than half the legal living wage) and rehearsal costs. If these struggles are still prevalent in the careers of acts signed to a major label, then how are independent artists meant to make a basic living?
The reason why tour support / grants are needed by so many artists in the first place is because it is near impossible as an emerging artist to break even, never mind make a profit, whilst touring.
We are now seeing this issue travel up the ladder of the industry, as we see established artists also speak about similar experiences as costs continue to rise.
Ways we’ve kept costs down:
Luckily, bunking up within our touring party is accepted, and we save money by staying with friends and family where we can. Our crew help keep costs down and accommodate budgets when possible by offering packages for tours rather than their usual daily rate which can be up to £250. We cut the cost of a Tour Manager by allocating this role to a band member, and we cut the cost of a driver by splitting the driving between a band member and crew member. This can result
in tiredness and lack of proper rest between shows.
For this headline tour, our show fees varied quite drastically from lowest being £250 to highest being £1,500, totalling at £5,560 for the whole tour. 10% of this is paid to our agent which leaves £4,960, and then 20% is paid to VAT, putting our take home figure at £3,968. If we were to look at breaking even, the above fee would have had to have covered the below costs:
Touring party:
band members x 3 (£0)
Session musician 1 - £1,200.00 (£150.00 Per Show)
Session Musician 2 - £1,200.00 (£150.00 Per Show)
FOH £1,200.00 (£150.00 Per Show)
LD - £350 (mates rates, £50 Per Show)
Merch £210 (mates rates, paid in cash from merch sales, £30 Per Show)
£4,160
PDs - £15 per person (5) per day £750
(Aside, Merch Upfront Costs: £4,000.00)
Van Hire - £2,000 (£200.00 PD)
Fuel - £250.46
Tolls / Parking / Congestion Charge - £53.06
£2,303.52
Accommodation - £868.42
Backline rental / consumables - £350
Rehearsals - £250
£600
COST OF TOUR: £8,681.94
SHOW FEE TOTAL: (£5,560) after fees and VAT £3,968
LOSS: £4,713.94
I haven’t included merch costs in the overall losses, as this batch of merch can be used across multiple tours. Our sales on this run were pretty decent, however what we made from merch did not cover the initial costs of merch production so we were still at a loss.
Despite the above factors, morale on the tour was good as everyone involved is incredibly passionate, and the buzz of playing to a room full of fans every night and connecting with those who share that passion was unforgettable, but there’s only so many cuts that can be made before burnout starts to ensue. We have an upcoming tour this year which was booked whilst still signed, however without crucial financial backing we are unsure how its going to go ahead.
This emphasises how the touring industry is becoming one which is reserved for the elite, as it is only really viable if the artist has significant personal wealth to invest and is unaffected by the shortfall / doesn’t have to rely on a label, or if you have a lucrative and supportive record deal which covers the shortfall. We need to find a way to make touring accessible for the emerging as well as the established, or we will continue to lose important perspectives and voices in music completely.
CASE STUDY TWO - BAND
Headline Show Example: London
We recently played a headline show in London with £300 total fee for about 200 attendees.
I pay each band member £125, so:
• £125 × 3 = £375
Already higher than the fee. Additional costs:
• Taxi for bringing our own backline: £160
• Venue charging £80 extra for bass amp
• Pizzas and drinks bought personally: £20 × 3 = £60
Total outlay: £675
This far exceeds the £300 fee. I had to cover all essential needs myself. No drinks, no warm meal for anyone, only water, some cans of warm beer, and crisps backstage. This is standard for many small UK shows.
Over the past few years, I have seen very clearly how financially impossible touring has become for independent artists in the UK — even when it looks from the outside as if we are making progress in our careers.
There is no way to make this show break even safely. The only way to reduce losses is to cut already very modest band fees, remove essential costs, or pay out of my own pocket. From outside, this looks like success — financially, it is self-subsidy.
Personal Financial Risk
I invested all my savings from a publishing advance into making our live shows possible over the past years. This allowed us to:
• Travel with our own FOH engineer occasionally (a luxury now), because I really didn’t want to have our show suffer
• Improve production
• Cover touring shortfalls
Those funds are now gone.
As a result:
• We no longer bring our own FOH engineer for UK shows. This saves money but adds risk, relying on an unknown in-house engineer who may not understand our sound. On multiple occasions, poor sound has negatively affected our performance. For developing artists, these live shows are critical moments, yet we must gamble the quality to make the finances work.
• One band member drives (£60/day)
• I cannot pay per diems
• Accommodation is often removed from budgets, meaning performing musicians are also responsible for long-distance driving after demanding shows
Burnout
Two former band members left due to burnout and now work full-time jobs, which do not allow flexibility for touring. Long journeys, low pay, and financial instability made continuing impossible. I could not increase fees because performance fees have remained static while costs rise.
This is not mismanagement — it is a structural imbalance between live fees and real touring costs.
National support tours and festival slots look like career growth, but they are often loss-making. Independent artists must:
• Self-subsidise touring
• Absorb financial risk
• Travel overnight long distances
• Reduce production standards
• Cut basic allowances like per diems and meals
Touring — the main way to build an audience — is not viable without personal capital. Career progression in UK live music should not depend on savings, unsafe travel, or financial sacrifice.
Without intervention — minimum fee standards, touring support, or venue contribution reform — independent artists will continue to leave the profession.
In Germany, for example, and many other European countries, festival fees are about 4 to 5 times higher for a similar slot, and you are provided your rider plus a warm meal for each band member. Also, there are many grants available for touring. I really hope that the UK can quickly catch up with these standards before it is too late.