VAULT Festival to end and VAULT to close after funding falls through

VAULT, the organisers of the acclaimed VAULT Festival, will close after failing to secure funding.

After concluding their decade-long run at the original Waterloo location last year, VAULT was hoping to establish a multi-space venue in the heart of London. The new space was to be a year-round home for VAULT, hosting the beloved VAULT Festival and supporting emerging artists.

The organisation has failed to secure funding for its new venue, despite a venue being agreed and plans for a 2024 festival on the cards. CEO, director and co-founder Andy George said: “We are devastated, we’re proud, and we’re grieving. 12 years ago, we set out with a mission to make the creative industries of the UK more diverse, more experimental, more inclusive, more joyful, and more embracing of the talents and ideas that emerging artists have to offer. I feel extremely proud that we’ve achieved that mission through our work and that we are leaving the creative industry in a different place to how we found it.

“We had an exceptional team, we had a fantastic new home, and we had the vision of how to get there. To come so close but ultimately fall short is agonising. We are grieving what could have been and what will be lost for future generations. I am certain that the impact from the loss of VAULT Festival will be felt across the entire UK creative sector for years to come.

“The irony that our platform that sought to support artists who have been failed and disenfranchised by the current funding, education, and institutional systems ultimately being undone by that very same system is not lost. Something needs to be done.

“Our journey may have come to an end, but I implore others to pick up the baton, to fight the fight, and to be creative, courageous and kind. Make art, make trouble, make change.”