Camden Town is renowned for its array of vintage shops, iconic characters and musicians and, perhaps most importantly, its legendary music venues. Due to the pandemic and government restrictions, music venues and live music bars are severely struggling. One of these is the iconic Black Heart, host to heavy music gigs and multiple rock festivals. The venue is in need of at least £100,000 in order to return when the pandemic is over. The venue have reached out to the general public after stating they have received no help from the government or their landlords.
On their website, the bar stated, ‘We’ve spent a year adapting our bar and venue to meet government guidelines due to this awful pandemic, but we can go no further on our own. We need to raise £150,000 by the end of March 2021, or we face the very real prospect of never reopening. We are independently owned and operated and are proud to have retained all our staff, because we’re a family. We are now reaching out to the extended Black Heart family for support as we launch our#savetheblackheart Crowdfunder. WE HAVE HAD ZERO HELP FROM THE GOVERNMENT OR OUR LANDLORDS.’
To encourage fans and live music fanatics to help save their venue, The Black Heart have donated prizes which can be won dependent on the amount donated. If £10 is donated, you could win some Independent Artist Bundle wall art whereas £15 could get you a bundle from Ritual Productions (including multiple LP’s and t-shirts). Donate £20 and you could win a £100 tab at Beer and Burger and £200 bar tab for The Black Heart. Finally the winner of the £40 raffle donation will receive 2 tickets to the Bristol Craft Beer Festival and a bar tab at Moor Brewery. Each week, the epic prizes change, all of which are ‘donated by loads of local and international bands, as well as Old Empire, Brooklyn Brewery, tattoo artists, We Are Beer festival, Ritual Records, Orange Amps, Desertscene, Mikkeller and many more.’
The iconic heavy music venue has hosted huge bands such as IDLES, The Bronx and Lightning Bolt. They have hosted multiple heavy festivals, including Camden Rocks, Desertfest and Incineration Fest. Incineration fest has been postponed from its original 2021 date and hopes to go ahead on the 7th May 2022.
The Black Heart is just one of the many epic music venues that is facing serious trouble and is need of relying on music fanatics, gig-goers and the kindness of strangers to keep going. Musicians have got behind the #savetheblackheart hashtag, with Andrew O’Neill donating all his sales from his recent ‘History of Heavy Metal’ DVD and Book to the crowdfunder. The musician/comedian tweeted, ‘ANOTHER VENUE UNDER THREAT! Until further notice all sales of my History of Heavy Metal DVD and book are going to go to the #savetheblackheart crowdfund campaign. Not gonna sit back and watch another essential venue disappear!’
ANOTHER VENUE UNDER THREAT! Until further notice all sales of my History of Heavy Metal DVD and book are going to go to the #savetheblackheart crowdfund campaign. Not gonna sit back and watch another essential venue disappear!https://t.co/dF6Je6CbIK
— Andrew O’Neill ☉ (@destructo9000) January 25, 2021
To donate to The Black Heart Crowdfunder and enter the prize raffles, click here.
