'Cultural erasure': The 1975's Matty Healy backs small venues

The 1975 singer Matty Healy has warned of "cultural erasure" as he threw his support behind a new festival which aims to back small music venues.

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The Seed Sounds Weekender, on September 26-28, will see in excess of 2,000 gigs take place in more than 1,000 venues across the UK.

Healy said: "The political neglect behind this crisis, steadily hollowing out arts funding and cultural infrastructure, is a class war by omission.

"Councils have slashed arts budgets by 20 to 30 per cent over the last decade. Without Government-led reforms - like a mandatory stadium-and-arena ticket levy, VAT relief, business rates reform and real investment in venue survival - this ecosystem collapses.