Now closing this petition

Thanks for signing my petition. The main purpose of it was to get the Dome to take this issue seriously which they are now doing. In their reply to me the Dome said:

"The types of events who come to the venue are also very wide and varied and include large commercial outfits who come with enormous quantities of merchandise and sell on a large scale to large numbers – Dirty Dancing Live this week was a typical example of this sort of large-scale operation.  We also regularly waive or reduce commission when artists are not backed by large commercial managements and/or promoters. It’s also worth knowing that the commission rates applied are varied depending on what service we are directly supplying to support the operations. This can vary from lending our card machines (PDQs) and covering commission or staffing the merchandise table with our own staff team .  The venues who you have noted are signed up to the commitment appear to be smaller scale than us where they are welcoming less commercial artists. As you note, we do not charge as much commission as some venues."

So it is not a simple situation. I have been speaking to the Featured Artists Coalition who run the national campaign and I have put them in touch with the Dome. The FAC have a new campaign starting which is not all-or-nothing and is instead a set of principles that venues should try to adhere to, like not charging support acts, independents, etc. I think that the FAC are in a better position to advise the Dome than I am so I am now closing this petition.

Thanks for your support and long live live music!