Sound Lounge in Sutton saved as £32k donated in a day

Keiron Marshall and Hannah White were shocked how quickly the donations came in

A music venue in south London has been saved from closure after receiving more than £35,000 in donations in less than 24 hours.

Keiron Marshall, 34, co-founded The Sound Lounge - a grassroots music venue specialising in live concerts and serving plant-based food - with his wife, Hannah White, 44.

The couple opened a venue in Tooting in 2016 and relocated to Sutton in 2020.

Mr Marshall said their business was "a week away" from having to close.

They were struggling with outstanding bills, soaring energy costs and the price of purchasing stock from suppliers, he said.

The Sound Lounge moved to Sutton in 2020

Their financial advisors said that £35,000 would be needed to cover any outstanding fees which could "potentially threaten" the business with closure.

As a result, the couple launched the online fundraiser on Friday and raised the full amount within just 22 hours. It has since raised more than £42,000.

'Absolutely shocked'

Mr Marshall said: "We launched it at 16:30 GMT and by the next day at 14:00 we'd hit the target, we were absolutely shocked.

"When we hit it, I could not believe it - Hannah was crying her eyes out for most of the day.

"We genuinely thought it would take six weeks to raise the money, and if we're honest, we weren't sure we were going to hit the target."

The couple now plan to turn the venue into a charity

Mr Marshall said the business had been struggling "since the pandemic", not helped by rising energy costs which saw its monthly electricity bill "go through the roof" from £750 to £3,000.

"It was just such a huge hike in every single cost in the business," he said.

He added that they estimated they would run out of money to keep the business afloat in January.

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Thanks to the donations, the couple are now looking to turn The Sound Lounge into a charitable organisation.

"We've had people write to us from the charity sector saying they want to help us," Mr Marshall added.

The couple have extended their fundraising target to £45,000 to help them with the cost of turning the business into a charity.

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