A fundraiser for staff at Sheffield venue Dorothy Pax has smashed its target, raising more than £4,500, after it announced it would close last week.

The Much-loved Dorothy Pax, a Grassroot Music Venue at Sheffield’s Victoria Quay announced its closure on 5 March. It put up a GoFundMe following the news and the donations have poured in. .

Organisers said the money was to help with the staff taking their next steps and supporting them with their future journeys.

Briony Tuplin, a General Manager at Dorothy Pax, said “It’s overwhelming the support that’s been shown, I really didn’t think we’d get that and it means a lot to the staff.”

One of the main reasons for the closure was because of Covid. Making the venue have to shut its doors in 2020. It was then reopened in 2021 once the restrictions had been lifted, being one of the last parts of the grass root industry to open again. 

Miss Tuplin shared that one of her favourite memories was when the pub reopened from lock down saying “Everyone was allowed to mingle and dance again, and just seeing everybody enjoying themselves and dancing and sharing a smile with their friends was just lovely.

“I can’t describe how amazing that feeling was inside.”

With its reopening the venue needed help to carry on financially and reached out to the Music Venue Trust which has helped over 900 of Dorothy Pax’s colleagues within the grassroots music industry.

In 2024 the Music Venue Trust found that 24.9% of its Grassroot Music Venues required support to prevent permanent closure with 44.2% having to close down due to financial issues. On top of this a further 43.8% of venues reported a loss in the last 12 months.

Miss Tuplin said “we don’t want to make an example of ourselves here and we don’t want it to happen to anybody else so the government needs to stand up now to save its culture.”

“People should write to their MP outlining why they feel there should be more support for music venues in our sector”