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© Yellow Arch Studios
Tickets for Good will be working with the Sheffield Independent Venues Alliance (SIVA), alongside the University of Sheffield, to help bring new audiences into some of the city’s most important grassroots music spaces. This includes directly supporting venues as part of the Sheffield Music Walk on Saturday 20 June by directly purchasing tickets from members of SIVA.
SIVA represents a group of independent venues across Sheffield, including Yellow Arch Studios, Sidney & Matilda, Crookes Social Club and The Washington. Together, they are focused on protecting and strengthening the city’s live music scene, supporting collaboration between venues, and making sure independent spaces continue to play a central role in Sheffield’s culture.
As part of this work, Tickets for Good will be using funds from its impact fee at checkout to purchase tickets directly from SIVA venues. These tickets will then be made available to people who might otherwise find it difficult to attend live events, helping more people experience what Sheffield’s independent scene has to offer.
By covering the cost of tickets upfront, new audiences can be welcomed into venues without taking on additional financial risk, and get the chance to discover spaces they may not have visited before. It’s a practical way to support both sides of the live events ecosystem at the same time!
“Having been part of Sheffield’s music scene for most of my life, I’ve seen how much these independent venues matter. They’re where people discover new artists, where scenes take shape, and where a lot of the city’s culture comes from.
Working with SIVA gives us a practical way to support those spaces while helping more people get through the door. If cost is a barrier, we want to help remove it and make it easier for people to experience what’s already happening across the city.”
Steve Rimmer, Founder and CEO, Tickets for Good
This builds on work Tickets for Good has been developing for many years to fund access to live events in different ways. Alongside donated tickets from event partners, we’ve worked with platforms like WeGotTickets to raise money through optional checkout donations. Funding has also been used to support the Ticket Bank project, which has helped thousands of people to attend events they might otherwise have missed. The Ticket Bank is open to people receiving government benefits and to those referred by our bridge-partners, including local councils, food banks, housing services and charities
In some cases, that funding has gone towards creating entirely new experiences. Our NHS Full House comedy shows at venues like 21Soho in London and The Leadmill in Sheffield brought together well-known comedians and emerging acts for audiences made up entirely of NHS workers. These were fully funded events designed to offer some much-needed laughs, while also introducing people to venues they could return to in the future.
Across all of this work, the aim has been consistent. Funding is used to make events more accessible for the people we support, while also helping venues reach audiences they might not otherwise connect with! Working with SIVA is a natural extension of that approach. Sheffield has a strong independent music identity, and its grassroots venues play a key role in shaping that. By directing funding into these spaces, we can help more people experience them while supporting the venues themselves in a meaningful way.
We’re always looking to work with partners who want to make live events more accessible. If you’re an event organiser or venue interested in reaching new audiences, a community organisation looking to create opportunities for your staff or the people you support, or a funder keen to support initiatives like this, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch to see how we can work together to open up more live experiences to more people.