10/04/2023

Footscray bar owner Mathew O’Keefe says support announced by the Victorian Government for the state’s live music industry will give his venue the “chance to reopen” as restrictions ease.

The Victorian Government has announced a $13 million package to help the state’s live music industry reopen with COVID-safe plans in place once restrictions ease.
Key points:

  • The package includes $9 million for 106 venues to help them survive the shutdown period
  • The Government also announced plans to amend the state’s planning scheme to better protect live music venues
  • Under the state’s roadmap, indoor live music venues cannot reopen until Victoria records no new coronavirus cases for a fortnight

Arts Minister Martin Foley acknowledged the sector was “one of the areas first and hardest hit” by the pandemic and said the Government was committed to ensuring it survived.
When the live music industry was forced to shut down in March, several Melbourne businesses told the ABC they feared they would not be able to survive months of closure.
Mr Foley said initial grants totalling $9 million would be offered to 106 live music venues to keep their businesses going and cover overhead costs until they could safely reopen.
The grants will also help offset the costs associated with enforcing caps on patrons at events.
A $3 million fund will also offer grants of between $4,000 and $50,000 to help artists, managers, promoters, bookers, road crews and other industry workers find COVID-safe ways of working.
The final part of the package is a $1.2 million grant to 10 music organisations and peak bodies to deliver business development programs to industry professionals.
The live music industry was one of the first to be shut down when coronavirus restrictions were introduced in March.(Supplied: Naomi Lee Beveridge, file photo)
Catch up on the main COVID-19 news from September 20 with our coronavirus blog.
Under Victoria’s coronavirus roadmap, outdoor entertainment events will be allowed, with approved COVID-safe plans, from the third step pencilled in for October 26.
In the final step of the roadmap, indoor entertainment venues would be able to open subject to density limits and patron caps.
Venue says grant will help them come out the other side
Mathew O’Keefe runs Pride Of Our Footscray Community Bar in Melbourne’s inner west, where in pre-pandemic times drag queens hosted punk and rock bands in front of 200 patrons until late into the night.
Mathew O’Keefe from Pride of our Footscray Community Bar says the grant will help him keep staff employed.(ABC News: Margaret Paul)
He said the $80,000 grant his venue had received through the first round of support would keep 17 staff employed, pay the bills and prepare the venue to reopen with plastic screens at tables and other COVID-19 precautions.
“We wanted the chance to reopen and this allows us to get to that and then our destiny is in our own hands,” he said.
He said the money would mean Melbourne’s live music scene had a chance to come out the other side.
“If you don’t have live music at a venue you might have poker machines and what else have you got?” he said.
“It’s really important to save these places which are giving paid jobs to musicians before they’re famous.”
Victoria’s road to recovery
Local councils put on notice to protect live music venues
Mr Foley also announced the Government would amend the state’s planning scheme so it better reflected the social, economic and cultural value of live music.
“And we will be strongly encouraging all local government areas to move quickly once that amendment has happened, to protect not just iconic local venues but live music precincts wherever they might be across the state,” he said.
“We want to make sure that in this COVID shutdown period, that venues are not at risk and that councils are given the tools to make sure that live music venues can keep pumping out rock and roll and keep pumping out music for many years to come.”
The state recorded 14 new infections on Sunday and the deaths of five more people with COVID-19.
More to come.