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British band crowdfund tour cancellation coverage

In what is believed to be a world first, Marillion are asking their fans to become their insurers in exchange for 'money-can't-buy' prizes

By IQ on 11 Oct 2021

Marillion have previously broken new ground using crowdfunding

Marillion have previously broken new ground using crowdfunding


image © Flickr/Chorus

British band Marillion are asking their fans to become their insurers for an upcoming UK tour due to a lack of suitable commercial insurance.

The band says they’ve invested more than £150,000 on preparations for the 10-date ‘The Light at The End Of The Tunnel’ outing, but risk losing it all if just one of member is forced to isolate with Covid.

The British government recently launched its long awaited £800 million insurance scheme for live events but it does not cover cancellation in the event of an artist or performer needing to self isolate.

“The tour would be cancelled, but the group would have to honour payments for lighting, trucks, tour buses and crew. This would be on top of not receiving any money from any remaining gigs that had not been played,” says the band.

Their solution is to set up a scheme called Lightsavers where fan pledges would provide a financial buffer, if needed.

“We’re asking our fans to pledge money that will be held in escrow and if it all goes Covid free it will be returned”

“We’re asking our fans to pledge money that will be held in escrow and if it all goes Covid free it will be returned to them at the end of the tour,” explains Lucy Jordache, the band’s manager.

“But if we do have to cancel, then their money will be used to pay the band’s unavoidable expenses.”

Fans who donate, regardless of if the money is needed or not by the band, will receive rewards determined by the size of their financial pledge, such as having their names appear in the tour programme or being given a download of a show from the tour.

There are a number of pledge tiers, ranging from £25 to £250, with the top two tiers already sold out.

This isn’t the first time Marillion has broken new ground using crowdfunding, according to Marillion frontman, Steve Hogarth: “[Fans] have come to our rescue before. Way back in 1997, they helped raise $60,000 to underwrite our entire US tour. It was the first noteworthy instance of online crowdfunding – a world first in fact. We also used the same method to underwrite some of our studio albums.”

Marillion’s tour begins at Hull’s City Hall on 14 November. For a full list of dates and venues go to www.marillion.com/tour.

 


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