The Bristol charity bringing people together through music, thanks to National Lottery funding

Every teenager deserves the chance to watch live music with someone who isn’t their parent or carer. That’s why community owned venue Exchange set up a Bristol branch of UK-wide scheme ‘Gig Buddies’, pairing music lovers with autism with a like-minded ‘buddy’ to chat to about music and go to gigs together. It is just one of 184 organisations in the South West to be awarded over £6.2 million in the past three months* by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

Thanks to £10,000 of National Lottery funding, Bristol Gig Buddies has already trained six volunteers (pictured left) who are in the process of being paired up and organising their first meetings. With social media support from bands like Radiohead and Idles, they have many more keen volunteers waiting in the wings.

Iwan Best, Director at the Exchange music venue and Gig Buddies project lead, said: “Quite a lot of people we work with are able to go to gigs, but only with their parents or support workers. They miss out on the independence and camaraderie. It’s so much better if they can meet people who also have their niche interests. We try really hard to match people up based on age, gender, music tastes etc.

“The project emphasises the importance of a good match, to put people together who have lots to talk about. Not only to make sure they are compatible, but to foster community and independence.

Iwan continued: “We’re too young a project to see this in action yet, but other Gig Buddies projects have seen people grow in confidence to the point where they are confident enough to go to gigs on their own or to go out and meet people on their own. We call that ‘completing it’.”

Rowan Miller, Head of Funding for the South West at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “Thanks to National Lottery players, this vital funding will have a huge impact, making live music accessible to everyone. This last year has been incredibly challenging for communities and we applaud the volunteers and groups that continue to provide programmes like Gig Buddies, reminding us of the activities in life that are so important for our wellbeing. As we all look to the future, we’re excited to see how local groups will use this funding to further support their communities to prosper and thrive.”

Bristol isn’t alone in benefiting from National Lottery funding. Today it was announced that nearly £65 million has been distributed to almost 2,000 community organisations across England in the past three months*. National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes across the UK, helping people and communities to build back from the pandemic, prosper and thrive.

The announcement comes shortly after The National Lottery Community Fund released a new report, Putting Communities First, which sets out the impact National Lottery funding has had on communities across the UK over the last five years.

The report shows that on average 5.2 million people across the country a year were supported by National Lottery-funded projects, with 97% of grant holders reporting improvements in their participants’ mental health, self-esteem and social contact.

During the pandemic, in 2020 alone, The National Lottery Community Fund distributed almost £1 billion to charities and community organisations across the UK.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk