Photo Credit: Blaine Schultz
RIverside Emergency Marquee
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit music venues of all sizes hard, along with the thousands of workers that help keep our favorite concert halls operating. Now, those venues are facing yet another hurdle.
During the hardest times of the pandemic, the Save Our Stages campaign and formation of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) created a united front to help provide independent music operators like the Pabst Theater Group, Cactus Club, X-Ray Arcade and hundreds more throughout the city and state some form of economic relief. Ultimately, their work in the last year resulted in the passing of the Shuttered Venues Operator Grant (aka the SOS Act) which was signed into law by the Trump administration on Dec. 27. Over $16 billion was allocated from the federal government to support independent music venues, but that money is currently sitting in limbo.
On April 8, the online portal for venues to apply for financial relief had finally opened. Within under five hours, however, the website crashed, and caused the Small Business Administration to close the application in order to fix the problem. No applications have been accepted, and no federal money has gone to an independent music venue. As of this week, the portal has still not reopened, causing NIVA member venues to once again rally together to alert the SBA of this growing crisis.
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Within the state of Wisconsin, there are over 200 NIVA member venues, including the Pabst Theater Group, who were amongst the founders of the organization. On the state level, Gov. Evers had previously allocated $15 million to the state’s music venues as part of an $100 million allocation for small businesses statewide in October.
Those interested in supporting NIVA can do so via the organization’s website.
