Popular North West music venue is the first to be bought by 'National Trust of Venues'
Video by ITV Granada Reports journalist Zoe Muldoon
A popular music venue is the first to have its future secured by a new project dubbed "the National Trust for venues".
The Snug in Atherton, Greater Manchester, is a grassroots venue to benefit from the Music Venue Trust's "Own Our Properties" plan.
The project lets fans and performers buy shares in the properties, protecting them from rising rents.
The Snug's owners have now signed a "cultural lease" with the Music Venue Properties, (MVP) which guarantees them the use of the building as long as they operate as a space for grassroots live music for their local community.
The Snug's Rachael Flaszczak said the purchase "means everything".
"We now feel secure and confident to plan ahead knowing the venue is in safe hands with people that have a shared vision of the future of new music," she said.
"Nobody individually owns the building, it is owned by the local music community and it's up to them to take it forward".
The venue, which has a maximum capacity of 100, doubles as a coffee house - but the landlord wanted to sell the building, putting the entire venture at risk.
The Music Venue Trust says venues like these are increasingly under threat from rising business rates and energy bills, and commercial agents hiking up rents.
The MVP scheme is a 10-year plan aimed at keeping gig venues for music lovers to enjoy.
The scheme has raised £1.5m from 1,200 individual investors, as well as £500,000 grants from both Arts Council England and Arts & Culture Finance.
The Snug's handover was marked in a ceremony attended by Ivor Novello-winning musician Jamie Lawson and 16-year-old Jennifer King, a singer from Newton Le Willows who is now a shareholder.
Jennifer said: "I have invested in it because we really believe it is really important for up and coming artists to be able to showcase your music. Places like these are really important to show your music and it's good to get more fans".
Award-winning musician Jamie Lawson has played to huge crowds but says the intimacy of small cannot be replicated.
"I am still coming back to venues like this to try songs - to see if you connect with an audience very clearly or not, you might see someone yawning or is rapt".
Also there was creative industries minister John Whittingdale, who said: "The UK's incredible grassroots music venues are the lifeblood of our world-leading music sector, launching new talent and supporting thousands of jobs in local communities.
"Thanks to initiatives like Music Venue Trust's Own Our Venues campaign and an extra £5m in government support for grassroots music, we're securing the future of these much-loved venues and maximising the potential of our creative industries."
The MVP has identified eight other venues that could benefit from the scheme in their first phase, with the project receiving some big name backing from the likes of Ed Sheeran.
Rachael Flaszczak said after the plaque unveiling: "Without these venues then there is not going to be any future in the music industry. Every band, artist, sound engineer, stage managers they all start of in venues like this.
"As long as we keep putting the music on and give a platform to new bands, it is a positive."
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