Music Venue Trust has joined forces with The National Lottery to launch “the UK’s biggest festival on your doorstep”, Everywhere At Once.
The event will take place for the first time on June 26-28 – held on what would have been Glastonbury weekend, which is taking 2026 off for a fallow year. Instead of being held at one site and having punters commute and camp there, it will take place at hundreds of grassroots music venues across the country.
Over that weekend, venues from Inverness to Penzance will host hundreds of artists as part of Everywhere At Once, ranging from household names through to emerging talent. The event is designed to encourage people to reconnect with their local grassroots venues, build a sense of community, and come together to discover new artists.
The event is being spearheaded by Music Venue Trust, Save Our Scene and Association of Independent Promoters, and will also see the National Lottery continue its support of the grassroots sector. The collaboration began back in 2021, when the MVT and the National Lottery came together to help kickstart live music again after the pandemic.
“This is a hugely significant moment for the grassroots music sector. Seeing hundreds of venues come together across one weekend shows the true strength and scale of the network that underpins live music in the UK,” said Mark Davyd, CEO of Music Venue Trust.
“Thanks to the support from The National Lottery, Everywhere At Once can pair visibility with meaningful, practical support, putting real investment directly into venues while amplifying their collective voice.”
He continued: “Together, this sends a clear message: live music doesn’t just happen in major cities or festival fields – it happens on our high streets, in our towns, and in the spaces communities rely on. This is what solidarity looks like in action, and it sets a powerful benchmark for what we can achieve when venues move forward together.”
Alastair Ruxton, Chief Impact Officer at Allwyn and operator of The National Lottery, agreed, sharing that the efforts will help artists and venues “continue to play a role in each and every community”, and help highlight “the essential role grassroots music venues and promoters play in supporting new talent.”
“The Everywhere At Once festival will have more stages, and highlight more artists than any field can across the summer and create a uniting moment for communities up and down the country to come together and enjoy incredible live music,” said.
Across the three days, audiences will be given the opportunity to help support various music charities too, as donations will be distributed to War Child, Nordoff and Robbins, Help Musicians UK, and Teenage Cancer Trust.
“In the summer things can sometimes seem quieter for venues, but Everywhere At Once proves that the grassroots never stands still,” shared George Fleming of Save Our Scene. “Venues across the country opening their doors for music and charity is a really powerful message, and Save Our Scene is excited to be part of it.”
More details about the events being held as part of the Everywhere At Once festival, including the artists getting involved, will be shared at a later date.
The news of the festival comes at a vital time for the UK’s live music sector, as it was recently reported that 30 grassroots venues were lost forever between July 2024 and July 2025 – and last year alone saw more than half of those remaining making no profit, with over 6,000 jobs lost.
In an attempt to help support grassroots spaces and help artists tour, there has been a push for a ticket levy to be introduced, which would see smaller venues and rising talent across the country receive a contribution from arena and stadium gigs to ensure their survival. The pressure is now on for the live music industry to ensure that 50 per cent of these shows are voluntarily paying in by June 2026, or else the government will step in to make it mandatory by law. Live Nation in particular have come under fire for not being as involved as other companies.
Live Nation, who played a part in Harry Styles contributing £1 for each ticket to his upcoming Wembley Stadium residency to the LIVE Trust, responded to the criticism by telling NME that they “support artists’ choices on charitable donations, and has worked with numerous artists who have contributed to the voluntary levy – from Coldplay to Biffy Clyro – and will continue to do so.”
The levy model is similar to that seen in the Premier League of football, and was given backing from the government in 2024.
The financial burden on grassroots spaces was partially alleviated at the start of the year, when the government delivered a U-turn on their potentially-devastating surge in business rates, and also provided a package of extra support for pubs and venues.
