Thousands of pounds raised after music venue announces closure
David Owens
After announcing it was to close, music venue The Moon on Womanby Street in Cardiff, has seen thousands of pounds pour into a fund launched to help those staff and freelancers who have lost their jobs.
The grassroots venue which has been at the forefront of the city’s music scene for many years, announced it was to close its doors for the final time.
The venue posted a heartbreaking message on its website and social media channels detailing the issues it has faced, stating, ‘the burden of a cost of living crisis and the mounting costs of running a business where survival always runs on a knife edge have proven too difficult for us to continue.’
The news comes as grassroots venues across the UK face a constant fight for their survival, with an average of two venues a week closing.
In the intervening 24 hours since the announcement music fans have rallied in support of The Moon, so far donating more than £4,000 to its Staff and Freelancer Support Fund.
The Moon’s Ed Townend who worked as a technical manager, promoter and sound engineer at the venue posted an update on the current situation and explained what the money raised would be used for.
He wrote: “Firstly, I want to say thank you. I’ve been overwhelmed and in shock by both the news I received yesterday morning and the response from the music community. As of today we have had 143 supports and over £4000. Wow.
“I want to let you know what you’re supporting.
“When The Moon closed suddenly 9 staff members immediately lost their jobs. 4 sound engineers lost the work they had coming up and in the future at the venue. We also lost our second home.
“Your contributions will help us whilst we work out what happens next. Some of us have been working at the venue for a few months, some of us for years. Now we have to work out what do next. If you’ve ever been through unemployment or redundancy you know how hard this can be. If you’ve been through that in the music or hospitality industry, you know even harder it can be.
“There’s no new immediate new venue for us to step into. However, I want to say personally thank you to Le Pub in Newport and our neighbours in Fuel who have already reached out to offer us temporary work. You guys are legends, and we are rooting for you.
“I finally want to say thank you to my colleagues. I met up with a fair handful of them yesterday to work out next steps and everyone was brilliant. There was no finger pointing, no resentment, just love, passion and hard work. I’m so proud of you.
“I had to make some truly terrible phone calls yesterday to let people know they had lost their jobs. I would never wish that on anyone, but the responses I received from everyone was understandably sad but dignified. I appreciate all of your hard work so much, and I am so happy that so many people have come out in support of you. You deserve it.
“I will keep everyone updated over the next few weeks hopefully with some messages of thanks from everyone in the team, but I want to say right now, again, thank you. The messages of support and love for our venue have made all the blood, sweat and tears worth it over the years.
“Love to all, see you at the next gig x”
Back in 2017 the venue closed its doors, but eventually reopened after staff launched a crowdfunding campaign to help them resurrect the much-loved live music venue.
Then a ‘Save Womanby Street’ march attended by thousands of music fans took to the streets of the city to protest at the closure of Dempseys pub (now Gareth Bale’s Elevens bar) and The Moon, as well as potential threats from a Wetherspoons Hotel, a noise complaint filed against Fuel Rock Bar, and a proposed seven-storey residential and commercial development next to Clwb Ifor Bach.
Fuel Rock Bar and Clwb Ifor Bach, are now the only two remaining music venues on Cardiff’s ‘music street’.
Reacting to the news of the closure of The Moon, Mark Davyd – the founder and CEO of Music Venue Trust told Nation Cymru: “Sadly, despite all the positive direction that government and industry seems now to be heading in, and everyone trying to get to grips with the challenges being faced by our grassroots music ecosystem, it isn’t happening fast enough to save vital spaces that are much loved and valued by their communities and essential to artists.
“The Moon is the perfect example of one of those spaces; incredibly important to local artists and music lovers, run by a dedicated and passionate team who have pulled out all the stops trying to keep the doors open, doing everything they could together as a community to keep music live.
“The external pressures on these venues cannot be met by these operators alone, and we must, urgently and without further delays, have a comprehensive action plan from the very top of the live music industry down to the very beginnings of people’s passion for live music that delivers real change and saves our venues from closure.
“We have consistently warned the Government that financial burdens from things like poorly conceived and delivered Business Rates was placing too much pressure on venues like the Moon. Not enough action has been taken quickly enough and now another venue has been lost. We’d like to thank the whole Moon team for everything they’ve done for music in Cardiff and for being such an active part of this community during incredibly tough times.”
You can donate to The Moon’s Staff and Freelancer Support Fund here: https://crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-the-moon-cardiffs-staff
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
