MILWAUKEE— “It's important to note we are 100 percent closed,” says Gary Witt, CEO of Pabst Theater Group.
Music venues across the state continue to be among the businesses hardest hit by the global pandemic, many being forced to close permanently. Without financial assistance, the remaining small music venues may be forced to cut the cord too.
A tragedy that at the start of the pandemic that Witt says he saw coming. It's why in April, Witt co-founded the National Independent Venue Association, which has been lobbying Congress for support. Witt says about 90% of NIVA’s, nearly three thousand members have said they’ll have to permanently close by the end of the year without additional financial aid.
“We are not just hosting shows we are part of developing a community to provide a soul and identity for the city,” says Witt.
Since March - Milwaukee's Riverwest Public House Cooperative, a customer-run bar and music venue, has struggled to keep the lights on.
“This place has been a staple for Riverwest for nine years. It’s been everything you want in a neighborhood place, created by the neighborhood,” says Michael Rebers, general manager of Riverwest Public House Cooperative.
“Before COVID there were at least 40 people here at the bar to play trivia," says Christen Johnson, Public House's trivia host.
“We are gracious enough to have a lot of community support to keep us open for another month,” says Rebers.
At the end of October, Wisconsin's only cooperative bar will join a growing number of independent venues that have been forced to permanently close.
“Music is one of the pillars of culture… You can record it and it's fine and you can record it on your phone that's great, but hearing something like that live in front of you— feeling the emotions of someone singing to you tats a more human experience than almost anything else,” says Rebers.
“I’m glad I get to be here to be at the end of an era,” says Johnson.
The Save Our Stages Act was introduced to the Senate by John Cornyn (R-TX) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and to the House by Reps. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Roger Williams (R-TX). It would establish a $10 billion grant program to provide at least six months of financial support to help keep venues afloat, pay employees and preserve a critical economic sector for communities across America. The organization is still pushing for this legislation, but with Congress stuck in partisan gridlock over a new relief package; there has been little progress in getting it through.