Most nonprofit performing-arts groups are also either dormant or operating online-only. Music venues and promoters are of course not the only businesses hurt by the shutdown. “When it comes to lending money, banks turn us down because we’re too risky of a model.”Īn additional complication: Even if venues here could open fully, the national and international acts that sustain them are unlikely to get back on the road until artists are comfortable packing onto tour buses, and the nation is no longer a patchwork of venues operating under diverse restrictions. “We’re not under any kind of corporate umbrella that is able to open up any big lines of credit,” said Adam Valen, marketing manager for Drusky Entertainment, which books shows at venues that include the South Side’s Smiling Moose to the landmark Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead. Spending rules would be more flexible than with other coronavirus relief programs, and would recognize the music industry’s heavy reliance on part-timers, from sound techs to bartenders.ĩ0.5 WESA Club Cafe, on the South Side, is another of Pittsburgh's shuttered music spots. NIVA is pushing for federal legislation like the RESTART Act, which would provide six months’ worth of mostly forgivable financing to businesses like venues and promoters. That approach is less helpful for music venues, which have high fixed costs and employ mostly part-time and contract workers. For the loans to be forgiven, the PPP requires a high percentage of the funds to be used to meet payroll. The PPP was designed as an alternative to unemployment: Its forgivable loans mostly served as a way to pay full-time workers even at businesses that were wholly or partially idled. Many of the venues have gotten help from federal stimulus programs including the Paycheck Protection Program. “We’re planning on selling 850 tickets here, and that’s just not gonna be possible,” said Berlin.Īnd that’s to say nothing of the health risks to everyone from artists to security guards. "It's not as simple as we open at half-capacity" Those costs remain whether 500 people come through the door or 50. Ticket sales must cover promoters’ expenses and venues’ costs, as well as artists’ guarantees. “We can’t pay the artists half of what they cost. “It’s not as simple as we open at half-capacity,” said Alex Neal, general manager of the Thunderbird Café and Music Hall, in Lawrenceville. And while bars, clubs and theaters in southwestern Pennsylvania are now permitted to operate at 50 percent capacity for gatherings of up to 250 people, with distancing requirements, the venues said they can’t function at a fraction of a full house. Revenue from ticket sales, food and beverages has zeroed out. The group formed as the pandemic began, and is advocating in Washington for an economic stimulus tailored for the industry, which went silent in mid-March. The businesses are among some 2,000 venues and promoters across the country that have joined the National Independent Venue Association, or NIVA. 90.5 WESA The marquee of the Rex Theater, on the South Side, promotes the Save Our Stages initiative.
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