Campaign to save live music venue The Wedgewood Rooms in Southsea reaches £12,000 target in just one day

The ‘Save The Wedge’ fundraiser was put online yesterday, in a bid to save The Wedgewood Rooms in Albert Road, Southsea, after 80 gigs were cancelled or postponed due to the coronavirus crisis.

A target of £12,000 was set to keep the venue going – but that has already been achieved, to the delight of owner Geoff Priestley.

He has thanked people for their ‘overwhelming’ support, and has vowed that the first gig when the venue reopens will be ‘amazing’.

Geoff said: ‘It’s certainly been an emotional couple of days.

‘I don’t think I was ready to see so many donations and kind comments coming our way.

‘It was very odd – about halfway through the day I had to take a break because I felt so emotional reading all the lovely things people were saying about us.’

When the fundraising page was launched at 10am yesterday, donations flooded in thick and fast.

Artist My Dog Sighs, whose studio is part of the building, pledged £4,000 to the fund.

‘People have just been so wonderful, and so generous,' Geoff said.

‘I’ve been so moved by everything that's happened.

‘It’s nice to know that people care so much – there are a lot of important causes to support at the moment so this has really taken me by surprise.’

The Save The Wedge fundraiser was launched as part of a national campaign to save music venues across the UK.

Set up by the Music Venue Trust, any further money raised by the Southsea venue will be put towards the national pot, to help keep other live music spots open for business.

‘There are so many other venues that still need saving,’ Geoff added.

‘Over the past few years we’ve been making a lot of headway – this has been a setback for so many live music venues, and other’s haven't been as fortunate as us.

‘I would just like to thank everyone for their incredible support in such a short space of time. It means so much to us.’

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