Management at the Twa Tams in Perth have celebrated reaching a crowdfunding target of £15,000 to secure their future.
Usually one of the city’s busiest watering holes, the Scott Street venue was forced to close throughout most of 2020.
With the music venue’s life on the line, bosses turned to fundraising, and within just over two weeks, achieved their £15,000 target to keep the business afloat through December and January.
Bosses Sandy Stirton and Chris Woods asked their tight knit community patrons from Perth and beyond would come to their help and are delighted by the way the customers have rallied around them.
Sandy said: “In the past few days we managed to hit our target and we’re absolutely delighted.
“It looks like we’ll be able to survive until at least when we think we can reopen.
“We’re overwhelmed. People from far and wide have supported us, even people from outwith the UK who have visited once and developed an affinity with the place.
“We are extremely grateful for everyone’s donations and thank you for all the kind messages of support.
“We can’t wait to welcome them all back. We’re champing at the bit to reopen. ”
The pair helped raise the money with streamed gigs on Christmas Eve and Hogmanay, nights when they would usually be welcoming musicians to their stage, as well as raffling off T-shirts and bookings for their grand reopening.
More socially distanced performances, live or pre-recorded and including virtual pub quizzes, could be on the way to help the venue tick over.
Also helping raise cash for the bar was neighbouring tattoo parlour Inkredible Kreations, who created almost a dozen Save The Tams tattoos.
The Canal Street artists charged £50 for each tattoo which went straight into the pub’s coffers.
“We’re planning for when we can reopen and been carrying out some renovations. There’ll be new heaters in the beer garden.
The pub first closed down in 2020 the day before St Patrick’s Day, a particularly big day for them.
Last month, Chris said: “It was nice when we were able to open our beer garden up, but that on its own was not profitable.
“We tried to do takeaway before, too, but didn’t have any luck with that.
“We all thought this would only be for three weeks, and here we are nine months later.”
