Congress has officially committed $15 billion to "live venues, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions" across the United States as a part of their most recent COVID-19 relief bill.
"We're thrilled that Congress has heard the call of shuttered independent venues across the country and provided us a crucial lifeline by including the Save Our Stages Act in the COVID-19 Relief Bill," said Dayna Frank, owner and chief executive of First Avenue Productions and board president of the National Independent Venue Association.
"We're also incredibly grateful that this bill provides Pandemic Unemployment Assistance which will help the millions of people who lost their jobs through no fault of their own during this economic crisis. We urge swift passage of this legislation, which will assist those in the greatest need and ensure the music lives on for generations to come."
The money sounds like a lot, but between venues, movie theaters, and whatever is being defined as a "cultural institution", it'll be interesting to see how much each individual establishment actually gets. No exact details were revealed at the time of the announcement.
This comes alongside the $600 each private United States citizen will receive as a part of the relief bill. It is assumed there will be some maximum salary requirements to get the relief fund.
At the beginning of the pandemic, it was estimated the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) in a survey of 2,000 venues that "90% of independent venues report they will close permanently in a few months without federal funding". So here's hoping this lowers that number.
If you're interested in a pretty extensive breakdown of the bill, definitely go check out The Hill's analysis.
