A working example in Swansea
Writing in his Substack column "Send in the Clowns," Davyd described an October 2026 visit to the Bunkhouse to celebrate Music Venue Trust's first Off the Grid project. Solar panels are installed, while battery storage remains a planned next step.
The 235-capacity venue at 24 Park Street became community-owned in August 2024, when Music Venue Properties acquired the building. The charitable Community Benefit Society was established to secure the future of grassroots music venues.
Davyd says the Bunkhouse now combines a Community Interest Company operating structure, business rates relief, access to the cultural VAT exemption, community ownership, equipment investment and solar generation. Artist lodging has not yet been delivered: MVT plans to offer an accommodation project that he expects will complete the model in 2027.
Getting this far required repairing three leaking flat roofs, adding green roofs and addressing damage inside the building. MVT partner Volunteer It Yourself helped carry out the refurbishment. The Bunkhouse team continued staging shows through storms, water intrusion, damaged roof sections and major construction work.
Davyd credits the venue's team alongside Music Venue Properties, Music Venue Trust, Swansea Council, the Welsh Government and other partners for supplying funding, expertise and sustained support.
Reducing costs rather than repeatedly covering them
The Bunkhouse gives physical form to "Venue X," the hypothetical venue Davyd described in March 2025. His proposal asked whether grassroots funding could remove recurring expenses instead of simply helping venues pay them. Rent, energy bills, equipment hire and hotels all draw money away from the people putting on shows.
His imagined venue paired a not-for-profit operator with a community-owned building, existing tax relief, solar power, reliable production equipment and somewhere for touring artists to stay. Davyd says some industry journalists and professionals dismissed the proposal as unrealistic.
The financial structures were not new, he argues. Eligible not-for-profit cultural organizations could already use the cultural VAT exemption on qualifying ticket sales, and business rates relief was also available under the relevant conditions. Community ownership likewise predated his proposal. His aim was to bring those arrangements together, not to depend on new tax concessions.
A supportive community landlord also makes improvements less precarious: money spent on the building can serve its future as a music venue rather than expose the operator to a rent increase. At the Bunkhouse, Raise The Standard supplied a full backline to complement the venue's PA and lighting. Davyd argues that dependable in-house equipment helps artists and venue crews deliver shows while reducing what must be rented and transported.
The energy ambitions remain only partly realized. Davyd says Off the Grid is still working toward meeting venues' full electricity needs and, where possible, sharing surplus power within the sector. The Bunkhouse's installed panels do not mean battery storage or that wider redistribution system is already in place.
Equipment, energy and beds across the circuit
MVT announced an immediate £2 million investment in targeted programs including Venue MOT, Off The Grid, Stay The Night and Raise The Standard. The first delivery phase included £200,000 from the LIVE Trust. Raise The Standard funds sound, lighting and backline systems to improve production quality and venues' ability to compete commercially.
In April 2026, MVT reported that Off The Grid energy audits were underway at Future Yard in Birkenhead, The Globe in Newcastle and The Exchange in Bristol. Solar and battery installations were planned, with the aim of cutting and ultimately eliminating long-term energy costs.
Accommodation projects are also progressing elsewhere. Davyd reported that Leicester's Firebug CIC had announced it was the latest Stay The Night beneficiary. At another venue, he watched the MVT team identify space and begin planning a further project.
Volunteer It Yourself, MVT's delivery partner for Stay The Night, reported that the first completed project was at Voodoo Daddy's in Norwich. Its self-contained artist lodging includes six bunk beds, a shower room, a kitchenette and a toilet.
The partner also reported approval for five more projects across the North East, Yorkshire, the Midlands and South East London. Scotland and the South West of England were priorities for the next phase. Davyd's argument for the scheme is practical: avoiding a hotel bill can make another tour date affordable.
Funding a model beyond one venue
The projects are taking shape in a financially fragile sector. MVT's 2025 annual report, published in January 2026, counted 801 UK grassroots music venues. More than half, 53%, made no profit that year, while the sector's average profit margin was 2.5%. Thirty venues closed permanently.
The report also found that 175 towns and cities, with an estimated combined population of 25 million, no longer received regular touring performances by professional artists. Changes to National Insurance and business rates contributed to about 6,000 job losses, a 19% reduction in the workforce.
Davyd identifies the pace of funding from the Grassroots Levy or government as the obstacle to extending the Bunkhouse approach across the circuit. He presents one venue as a starting point for replication, not evidence that the wider sector's financial problems have been solved.
As described in MVT's January 2026 report, the Grassroots Levy was a voluntary £1 contribution on arena and stadium shows with capacities above 5,000, administered by the LIVE Trust. Just 8.8% of tickets on sale at that level in 2025 carried a version of the levy. MVT said then that the government must legislate for a statutory levy if voluntary action failed to deliver by June 2026.
EV charging and affordable electric touring vehicles remain part of Davyd's wider vision, rather than completed features at the Bunkhouse. The next planned step there is more immediate: accommodation for musicians, with completion of the Venue X model targeted for 2027.
