#SaveVAULT
Thank you for your interest in helping to #SaveVAULT Festival! Here you’ll find info on why our survival is under threat and ways you can help. The headlines:
• VAULT Festival has been left without a venue for 2024’s festival and beyond
• VAULT Festival have launched a #SaveVAULT campaign
• The campaign aims are to raise £150,000 by 19th March to support festival’s survival AND to secure a new home for the festival to continue.
• You can help by donating, helping access funding networks, and helping us find a venue.
• You are officially implored to make the most of 2023’s Festival while it lasts!
Please donate using the button below if you can, and please Gift Aid your donation if you’re eligible.
VAULT Festival Left Without a Home for Future Festivals
Following its triumphant return for the first time in three years having battled to survive through cancellations and postponements, VAULT Festival has been dealt the devastating blow of being told by its landlord, The Vaults, that it must find a new home for future festivals as the venue is instead looking at other more commercial projects. This decision leaves VAULT Festival without a home for 2024 and beyond and poses a significant threat to our survival and to the wider creative industry.
Over the past 11 years, VAULT Festival has delivered over 3,000 bold and brilliant shows to over 400,000 audience members. The festival is recognised for being vitally important to the live performance landscape of the UK, has helped launch the careers of thousands of artists from underrepresented backgrounds, who otherwise may not have had access to creative opportunities, and has had a significant positive impact on local businesses.
Whilst our journey at our current home is coming to a close, we’re determined to not let this be the end. But we need your help to #SaveVAULT. And here’s how you can help!
Money
We need to raise £150,000 to support our survival during this massive period of change and to find and secure a new home and we’re aiming to raise this by the 19th March. Every donation helps us get closer to our goal to keep this incredible festival alive. Please use the button below to contribute towards helping to save VAULT Festival’s future and please Gift Aid your donation if you’re eligible.
To discuss making a significant contribution to the campaign, or if you can help raise funds through networks and other means, we want to hear from you! Please use this simple form to get in touch.
How Will the Money Be Spent?
It takes 12 months to plan a VAULT Festival of the scale it is right now, and that’s at the best of times when we know the venue we’ll be working in. So we already know that whatever happens in Spring 2024 will have to be a vastly smaller, experimental version of the festival whilst we work to transition to a longer term home for 2025 and beyond. That means we’ll be without meaningful income for up to 18 months, possibly (probably) longer. The last three years of the pandemic have also hit our finances and reserves hard with a postponement in 2021 followed by a cancellation in 2022. It’s no exaggeration to say we wouldn’t still be here without the pandemic-relief funds that were available during that time. Those funds are obviously no longer available, so our ability to survive through the next period is hanging by a thread. This news is the equivalent of being kicked whilst we’re down. But we’re determined to make sure this isn’t the end. We’ll spend the money raised as follows:
| Amount | How It’s Spent |
|---|---|
| £122,625 | Covers 50% of our staff salaries & social security costs to keep our current team of ten staff employed for 9 months. This is half of the cost of half of the time we’ll be without meaningful income but we’re working on other fundraising methods (grants, trusts, corporate sponsors, and earned income) to meet the rest of these costs. We know if we shrink and lose staff, our chances of survival reduce even further. |
| £7,000 | Covers 50% of overheads (heating, utilities, broadband, desk space etc) so we have a space to work from for 9 months. Again this is half of the cost of half of the time we’ll be without meaningful income but we’re working on other fundraising methods as above. |
| £12,000 | Agent and legal fees for finding & securing a new home. |
| £9,000 | Feasibility studies, costings, drawings, & planning consultations for new home. Engaging creative freelancers to work with us to create plans and designs for our new venue. |
| £150,625 |
We’re a not-for-profit registered charity, so every pound raised will be spent on delivering our mission of keeping VAULT Festival alive.
Space
VAULT Festival needs a new home. After 11 fantastic years, we’re on the hunt for a new venue to ensure the UK’s leading live performance festival can continue.
We’re seeking spaces with heart and grit that are rough around the edges, disused or need some work. We’re looking for a space that could be transformed into 3, 4 (or more) performance spaces and a couple of areas for artists and audiences to meet, chat, and have fun! Around 20,000 sq ft. We’re open to pop-up temporary spaces, or something permanent. We’re looking for a space where artists can experiment and where audiences can discover the best live performance talent in the UK.
We’d love to continue with our roots in Waterloo and South Bank, but we’re expanding our search to areas throughout London.
If you know of a space, or you know someone who knows someone who has space, let us know by filling in a super quick form.
Other Ways to Help
There’s a really easy way to support us… simply come down to VAULT Festival 2023, running every Tuesday-Sunday until 19th March. See shows, buy drinks, buy some merch, become a VAULT Member, bring your mates, and come back time and time again. It all helps us keep going. There’s more than 550 shows from 4,000 artists to choose from. Take a look here.
Got any questions?
We’ve set up a dedicated inbox to answer any questions you might have about the #SaveVAULT campaign. Drop us a line at [email protected]
For all Press & Media enquiries, contact Caitlin Plimmer, Chloé Nelkin Consulting at [email protected]
