Music Venue Trust has extended the deadline for investors to board its Grassroots Music Venues ownership scheme and has a musical heavyweight offering support in Ed Sheeran.

Built on the Community Share model that has saved pubs, post offices and sports grounds, MVT’s Own Our Venues is trying to raise £3.5m in initial investments to acquire nine venues. They plan to purchase the venues by the end of the year.

Sheeran, a longstanding supporter of grassroots music venues said, “Own Our Venues is an initiative I’m really passionate about getting behind. Small, independent venues are so, so important to the music community, and I’ve played some of my favorite gigs of my career in these rooms. We’ve got to do all we can to protect these beautiful venues that we’ve all come to love for years to come.”

To date, the campaign has raised £355k via Crowdfunder, and larger investments are expected to be announced soon.

MVT CEO and founder Mark Davyd said, “We are blown away by the support already for Own Our Venues. This is campaign that is really resonating with music fans who understand exactly how important it is to keep access to live music in our communities, our towns and cities right across the U.K. With the Own Our Venues project gathering steam, we are incredibly pleased to get Ed’s support for this initiative—he knows this sector incredibly well and understands how important it is.”

Own Our Venues was launched by Music Venue Trust in June and is the first step in a long term campaign to take control of the freeholds of music venue premises and bring them under a protected status of benevolent ownership.