music

Photo by Tim Brown

From the Mayor’s Office:

“Today, Mayor Bowser announced a pilot that will allow a limited number of venues to host live entertainment. The pilot creates an opportunity to resume live entertainment in a controlled environment that can be scaled up or down and that District officials can learn from for future guidance. The six venues that are invited to participate in the pilot include: City Winery, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Pearl Street Warehouse, The Kennedy Center, The Hamilton, and Union Stage.

Any participating venues are required to submit and execute detailed plans for operating and will be monitored closely by the District. The pilot will go through 11:59 p.m. on Friday, October 30. During the pilot period, the District will not be accepting waiver applications from any other venues.

In addition to the pilot, which is limited to the six venues listed above, the District is inviting operators of outdoor entertainment venues who have already submitted plans to the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency through its waiver process to review the criteria for hosting live entertainment and resubmit their plans. The organizations that have been invited to resubmit plans for outdoor entertainment include: Adams Morgan Partnership BID, Arena Stage, Busboys and Poets, Capitol Riverfront BID, District Wharf, Et Voila Restaurant, Heist Group at the Kennedy Center, and The Bullpen.

The criteria requires that venues:

Sell or distribute tickets in advance of the event;

Have a maximum of fifty (50) persons, including attendees, performers, staff, and all other persons in the venue; (more…)

Photo by Tim Brown

From a press release:

“A coalition of DC musicians and music advocates launched a grassroots campaign this week to advocate for government relief of the city’s music venues. The #SaveDCVenues campaign, which has accrued hundreds of signers within a few days, urges the DC Council and mayor Muriel Bowser to adopt a version of the 2020 DC Music Venue Relief Act: a piece of draft legislation that provides direct relief to businesses who rely on (now-absent) revenue from live music.

The outreach campaign is the latest in a series of public actions organized by the “DC Music Stakeholders,” a grassroots coalition of many DC-based musicians, venue owners, nonprofit leaders, and local activists. The Stakeholders formed shortly after the pandemic hit the District in March, and have met twice weekly since then, sharing information and providing support for a music scene in crisis.

COVID-19 has devastated DC’s music community. Since it began, the pandemic has forced the closure of at least four longstanding D.C. music institutions, all four cornerstones of the local music economy who presented the jazz, R&B and soul musicians bearing the torch of D.C.’s legacy of Black music. The most recent casualty is the beloved Twins Jazz, which supported DC’s vibrant jazz scene for 33 years, which announced its closure on August 27. (more…)