Harry Styles is donating £1 from every ticket sold to his 2026 UK stadium shows to LIVE’s levy to protect grassroots music venues.
The pop singer announced the ‘Together, Together’ tour last week and as part of it, he will be playing eight nights at London’s Wembley Stadium in June – a run that was extended earlier today (January 26) due to popular demand.
It has since been revealed that for every ticket sold for the Wembley shows, £1 will be donated to the LIVE Trust, the organisation striving to protect grassroots music venues in the UK.
This policy is in keeping with LIVE’s levy system that will see the money invested back into the UK’s live music scene and to help smaller venues keep their doors open amid a time of crisis.
Styles joins the likes of Coldplay, Sam Fender, Katy Perry, Pulp and Mumford & Sons in supporting the levy.
The Music Venue Trust celebrated the former One Direction singer’s decision, writing: “He’s the first artist this year to announce a major UK stadium tour with £1 from every ticket going to the LIVE Trust, directly supporting the UK’s grassroots venues.”
“That £1 might feel small. But when artists at the top level step up, it unlocks serious, long-term support for the base that holds the whole live music ecosystem together. This model works. And it’s growing.”
The Featured Artists Coalition have also praised Styles. “By donating a portion of each ticket to the Live Trust, Harry is helping provide essential support for artists, promoters and venues navigating some of the toughest conditions the live sector has ever faced,” they have said. “By backing the LIVE Trust this way, artists are protecting the future pipeline by enabling programmes such as the FAC’s UK Artist Touring Fund (UKAT).”
Last year, London’s Royal Albert Hall became the first 5,000+ capacity venue to commit to the £1 ticket levy, a decision that will raise an estimated £300,000 per year for the LIVE Trust.
It comes after the Music Venue Trust recently shared their annual report, which showed that 30 grassroots venues had permanently closed in the UK between July 2024 and July 2025, with 48 other ceasing to operate as gig spaces.
Of those that survive, an average profit margin of just 2.5 per cent saw a staggering 53.8 per cent of grassroots venues report no profit in the last 12 months, with a loss of over 6,000 jobs (19 per cent) across the year.
Employer National Insurance increases were cited as the principal driver of job losses, while the recent increase in business rates has also proven devastating. The grassroots sector subsidised live music by £76.6million in 2025, while recent larger shows at arena and stadium level saw UK live music contribute a record-breaking £8billion to the economy.
The Music Venue Trust argue that if voluntary industry contributions to the levy cannot be proven to work by June 2026, then the government must legislate and make the Grassroots Levy law – something their CEO Mark Davyd says would be “justified”. He has praised SJM, Kilimanjaro and AEG for their contributions to the levy, but has hit out at Live Nation.
“These companies are delivering,” he said. “Live Nation, you know, and the whole industry knows, you are not. If the voluntary levy fails, it will not be the fault of the companies who have already embraced it, or of Music Venue Trust, or of the government, or of any will to do it on behalf of individuals, artists, managers, agents, audiences or anyone else. It will be a direct consequence of the overwhelmingly dominant force in the arena and stadium market deciding not to deliver a voluntary levy. That’s your choice Live Nation and everyone in the industry hopes you make the right one.”
Addressing the politicians in the room, David said: “My message is blunt: Stop mucking about. Stop making speeches that don’t actually move things forward. Just get things done. These are not radical demands. They are the minimum required for a sector this important.
“People who say it cannot be done should get out of the way of the people doing it,” Davyd ended. “Music Venue Trust is moving forward in 2026 and beyond. We are not asking if this can be done. We are doing it.
“The only remaining question, for everyone in this room and beyond, is whether you are going to do it with us.”
Visit here to find out more about the LIVE Trust and the £1 ticket levy.
