UK grassroots music venues recorded 19,410,840 audience visits in 2024, across 162,092 events. The figures show both the reach of live entertainment and the operating conditions behind it: ticketed events averaged 122 attendees, while more than 6 million people attended free-entry events. For pub managers, the data is useful for understanding audience scale, programming mix, capacity use and the role of food and drink income.
Contents
- UK grassroots venue attendance scale
- Capacity use and attendance per event
- Event programming and free-entry audiences
- Attendance supply and venue-network change
- Touring reach and local access
- Pub-linked revenue and operating context
UK grassroots venue attendance scale
The Music Venue Trust Annual Report 2023 recorded 23,657,220 audience visits at UK grassroots music venues during 2023. Its 2024 report recorded 19,410,840 visits. The same reports recorded 187,040 events in 2023 and 162,092 events in 2024.
The average venue recorded 28,332 audience visits in 2023, falling to 23,964 in 2024. Average venue activity also changed: the average venue staged 4.3 events per week in 2023, including three live-music events, compared with 3.8 events per week in 2024, including 2.6 live-music events. These are UK grassroots-venue averages, not attendance figures for every pub with live entertainment.
The Music Venue Trust reports also counted 99,365 ticketed live-music shows in 2023 and 91,149 ticketed live-music events in 2024. Separately, the UK government’s Turn It Up: Our plan for music states that UK gigs sold 23.5 million tickets in 2024. The government figure covers UK gigs broadly, while the Music Venue Trust figures describe the grassroots venue sector.
| Measure | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Grassroots audience visits | 23,657,220 | 19,410,840 |
| Grassroots events | 187,040 | 162,092 |
| Average venue audience visits | 28,332 | 23,964 |
| Ticketed live-music events | 99,365 | 91,149 |
Sources: Music Venue Trust Annual Report 2023 and Music Venue Trust Annual Report 2024.
Capacity use and attendance per event
The average grassroots venue had capacity for 309 people in 2023. Overall venue capacity utilisation was 41%, while ticketed events used 42% of available capacity. Ticketed events averaged 127 attendees per event.
The 2024 report put overall venue capacity utilisation at 39.6%. Ticketed events used 38.6% of available capacity and averaged 122 attendees per event. These measures describe utilisation across the grassroots venue network; they should not be treated as a target attendance rate for a particular pub room.
The paired figures show a modest change in the typical event environment. Average ticketed attendance moved from 127 to 122, while ticketed capacity use moved from 42% to 38.6%. In a pub, the practical question is how many people can be accommodated while preserving sightlines, service access, safe movement and normal trading space. The available data quantifies attendance and utilisation, but does not provide a pub-specific layout or capacity recommendation.
The 2023 report’s average of three live-music events per week and the 2024 average of 2.6 live-music events per week provide additional context. Attendance is connected to event frequency: a venue can host smaller audiences repeatedly, or concentrate demand into fewer shows. The supplied figures do not identify which individual event formats produced the highest turnout.
Source: Music Venue Trust Annual Report 2023 and Music Venue Trust Annual Report 2024.
Event programming and free-entry audiences
The average grassroots venue staged 155 live-music events in 2023. Seventy-seven percent of the average venue’s live-music events were ticketed, and each live-music event featured nine artists on average. This suggests that a single programme can involve several performers, with attendance distributed across a bill rather than attached to one act alone.
In 2024, live music represented 67.5% of all grassroots venue events. Ticketed events made up 79.6% of live-music events. Other art forms, including comedy, theatre, dance and film, exceeded 22% of average-venue programming. The 2024 mix therefore included live music alongside a material non-music programme.
Free-entry events represented 35.2% of all grassroots venue events in 2024. Grassroots venues staged 57,217 free-entry events, and more than 6 million people attended them. Free-entry attendance is especially relevant to pubs because it describes audience activity that is not measured by ticket sales. It can sit alongside normal bar service, repeat visits and mixed programming, although the dataset does not quantify spend per free-entry attendee.
The distinction between ticketed and free-entry audiences matters when comparing attendance statistics. A ticket count measures paid access; total audience visits include a broader set of visits. For pub live entertainment, a useful internal dashboard would keep those categories separate rather than treating every visitor as a ticketed customer.
Sources: Music Venue Trust Annual Report 2023 and Music Venue Trust Annual Report 2024.
Attendance supply and venue-network change
Attendance depends on the number of places available to host events. Music Venue Trust reported that Music Venue Alliance membership fell from 960 venues in 2022 to 835 in 2023, a loss of 125 trading venues. Of those 125 venues, 51.4% fully closed as trading businesses and 48.6% stopped hosting live music.
The 2024 report counted 810 spaces performing the grassroots-venue function. Trading grassroots venues declined 3%, from 835 in 2023 to 810 in 2024. More than 200 grassroots venues sought emergency-response help in 2024, representing 24.9% of Music Venue Alliance membership. In the same year, 43.8% of grassroots venues reported a loss in the prior 12 months.
The reports also recorded pressure in attendance-linked activity. Ticketed live-music events declined 8.3% from 2023 to 2024, while ticket revenue declined 13.5%. Those figures are sector-level changes and do not establish the cause of any individual pub’s performance. They do show why event count, attendance, ticket income and wider on-site spending should be tracked as separate measures.
For a pub planning a live programme, venue-network figures provide context rather than a forecast. A smaller number of trading venues can affect where touring acts appear and how audiences travel, but the supplied data does not quantify the impact on any one town or pub.
Source: Music Venue Trust Annual Report 2023 and Music Venue Trust Annual Report 2024.
Touring reach and local access
The Music Venue Trust Annual Report 2024 gives a long-run comparison of grassroots touring reach. The average grassroots tour included 21.9 shows across 28 primary or secondary locations in 1994. It included 18.5 shows across 22 locations in 2004, 12.9 shows across 15 locations in 2014, and 10.9 shows across 12 locations in 2024.
The same report summarises the change as an average tour length falling from 22 dates in 1994 to 11 dates in 2024. Primary and secondary touring locations fell from 28 to 12. All 12 remaining primary and secondary grassroots touring locations in 2024 were major cities.
| Touring measure | 1994 | 2004 | 2014 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average shows | 21.9 | 18.5 | 12.9 | 10.9 |
| Primary or secondary locations | 28 | 22 | 15 | 12 |
These figures describe touring reach, not pub attendance directly. They do, however, frame the availability of touring acts outside major centres. A pub relying on touring entertainment may face a different supply pattern from a venue that books local performers or recurring community events.
Access is also part of the attendance picture. In Glasgow, the last public-transport departure within accessible distance of some grassroots venues was 11 p.m. in 2024. For some grassroots venues, the last accessible public-transport departure was as early as 5 p.m. The report does not say that these times applied to every venue or every event, so they should be read as examples of access constraints.
Source: Music Venue Trust Annual Report 2024.
Pub-linked revenue and operating context
Average grassroots-venue ticket prices were £11.42 in 2023 and £11.48 in 2024. Average audience spend per head was £13.10 in 2023. These measures place ticket income alongside the wider value of an audience visit, although the spend-per-head figure is for 2023 and is not a 2024 estimate.
Food, beverage and other income made up 68.1% of average venue turnover in 2023 and 78.4% in 2024. Ticket sales made up 21.6% of average venue income in 2024. For a pub, this split highlights why live entertainment can be evaluated as part of a broader trading model rather than only by the door charge.
Across grassroots venues, total live-music income was £134,123,094 in 2023 and £113,634,865 in 2024. Spending on live music was £248,937,256 in 2023 and £275,701,960 in 2024. The 2024 report states that grassroots venues subsidised live music by £162,067,095.
The income and spending figures are sector totals, while the turnover shares are average-venue measures. They should not be combined into a single pub-level profitability calculation. They do support a practical reading of attendance statistics: a live event can contribute through tickets, food, beverages and other income, while the cost of presenting the programme may exceed ticket income.
For bar management, the clearest measures to keep alongside attendance are event type, ticketed or free entry, capacity, actual attendance, ticket price and audience spend. The UK grassroots data supplies sector benchmarks for each of several of those dimensions, while leaving the pub-specific operating result to be measured locally.
Sources: Music Venue Trust Annual Report 2023 and Music Venue Trust Annual Report 2024.