Luna, a grassroots music venue in East London is fighting to keep it’s doors open.
Post pandemic challenges and rising costs has meant forced to Luna to start fundraiser in order to try and continue it’s work for local musicians and others in the community. https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-luna
Post pandemic challenges and rising costs has meant forced to Luna to start fundraiser in order to try and continue it’s work for local musicians and others in the community. https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-luna
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00:00 The whole scene is in crisis point I think. 30 of the 131 London grassroots venues, they've
00:09 reached out for help. So it's not just us, there's a much wider problem in this area.
00:15 Obviously it's a difficult period for so many people, but I think there needs to be something
00:20 done in order to secure the future of venues like this.
00:24 Luna, a grassroots music venue in East London, is fighting to keep its doors open. Post-pandemic
00:30 challenges and rising costs has meant that Luna has started a fundraiser in order to
00:35 try and continue its work for local musicians and others in the community.
00:41 So my name's Declan Walsh, I'm the owner of Luna in Leytonstone. We have a campaign right
00:46 now to raise funds for the venue because we are in a position where we're at a critical
00:51 point. The venue accrued arrears during the pandemic and the fundraiser is simply to secure
00:58 the lease for us. So we need to pay off the arrears from that period and also pay a year
01:03 in advance for our rent for the landlord just to make sure that we are able to secure that
01:10 lease.
01:11 When I first came to Luna, I had a friend and she said that there was an open mic and
01:19 she wanted me to come down. So I came and did a couple of songs and then the booker
01:26 at the time asked if I would like to do a gig and then I came back and did another gig
01:33 and it was always in the back of my mind that I just wanted to come back because I'd just
01:37 moved to London and I was very excited about everything.
01:42 It's just like a safe place for me to come. There's not really many places that anyone,
01:52 especially here as well, we're allowed to have multiple ages and young people and old
01:57 people and people from all different backgrounds and you don't have to pay for anything. You
02:01 can just come on any day of the week and come and chill and meet people and watch music.
02:08 For me that is incredibly important.
02:12 Luna means everything to myself. It's something which I've invested everything I have into
02:17 it. That's my time, my energy, blood, sweat, tears. But it's much more than that. It's
02:23 about the people that come here. It's about the people that walk through these doors.
02:28 If they're a musician, they have a great platform. If they're a customer, we create a bubble
02:33 around them so they can have a great night and forget all their troubles at the doors
02:37 and go home happy.
02:38 If they're someone who worked in the team, it's a grassroots music venue but it's a grassroots
02:43 place for everyone around us. These are the opportunities that people just wouldn't get.
02:47 It's your first chance to do something which you really love and there's no pressure around
02:51 it because everyone else is learning. That could be marketing, that could be social media,
02:55 photography, absolutely everything. We try and make sure that with everything we have,
03:01 we give people a chance to improve themselves.