More Than 800 Music Venues Join Together to Ask Congressional Leaders for Aid
“Because of our unprecedented, tenuous position, for the first time in history, there is legitimate fear for our collective existence,” National Independent Venue Association president Dayna Frank says in open letter
A new coalition of independent concert venues from across the country has issued a letter to Congress asking legislators for further assistance to cushion the blow they’ve faced as live music has shuttered in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The National Independent Venue Association, made up of more than 800 prominent venues including the Troubadour in Los Angeles, World Cafe Live in Philadelphia, and the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, was founded last week in light of venues’ ongoing need for assistance while their businesses remain closed.
“Our passionate and fiercely independent operators are not ones to ask for handouts,” Dayna Frank, NIVA Board President and owner of First Avenue in Minneapolis, said in a statement issued to Rolling Stone. “But because of our unprecedented, tenuous position, for the first time in history, there is legitimate fear for our collective existence.”
The letter, issued to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday, details requests and recommendations based on struggles that have been particularly challenging for concert venues, where closing their doors has cut into virtually all of their revenue.
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