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Music & Entertainment
City offers guidelines for events to reopen safely amid pandemic concerns
The city has released a new set of guidelines for event safety that looks to provide some clarity and help a critical piece of the local economy recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. On Friday the Austin Center…
Music & Entertainment • By Chad Swiatecki • Mar 23, 2021
Music, Downtown commissions explore options for preserving downtown venues
With music venues and creative spaces becoming more endangered as real estate prices continue to climb, members of the Downtown Commission and Music Commission are looking to enlist other groups in an effort to include those spaces in new developments.…
Music & Entertainment • By Chad Swiatecki • Mar 16, 2021
City distributes $1.34M in venue assistance, with more funding on the way
The city has awarded $1.34 million in assistance to live music venues that have been mostly or entirely closed since March, with another round of city funds available and billions in federal assistance on the way soon. As of this…
Music & Entertainment • By Chad Swiatecki • Jan 15, 2021
Music Commission eyes funding apart from hotel tax among 2021 priorities
The Music Commission wants to decrease the role that Hotel Occupancy Tax will play in funding arts and music programs in the coming years, possibly relying more on the city’s General Fund or other revenue sources while the local hospitality…
Music & Entertainment • By Chad Swiatecki • Jan 12, 2021
SXSW will have online events in 2021. A physical festival in Austin is still a possibility.
South by Southwest will host an online event next year, but plans for a physical one are still in the works, the organization announced Tuesday. The annual series of conferences and festivals, which attracts hundreds of thousands to Austin each…
Music & Entertainment • By Marisa Charpentier, KUT • Sep 23, 2020
'We deserve to be saved': Austin music venues rally for city-backed relief fund
Austin’s music community rallied at City Hall Wednesday to support a measure to bolster the ecosystem around live music in the face of the pandemic. The rally included everyone in that ecosystem, from the folks who help keep the scene…
Music & Entertainment • By Andrew Weber, KUT • Sep 17, 2020
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City opens grant program to assist creatives impacted by Covid-19
Artists and workers involved in the city’s creative economy can apply today for $2,000 awards from Austin’s new Creative Worker Relief Grant program. The program, which has $3.5 million in total funding, is the latest spun up by the Economic Development…
Music & Entertainment • By Chad Swiatecki • Aug 17, 2020
Latino groups ask Music Commission to support creation of Latino music fund
A new coalition is pushing the Music Commission to support allocating some of the city’s funds for live music to Latino musicians. Members of the Latin Music Coalition Austin spoke at last week’s meeting of the Music Commission to highlight…
Music & Entertainment • By Chad Swiatecki • Aug 10, 2020
Austin joins national pilot program exploring how to safely reopen music venues
Austin has signed up as a pilot city for a national effort to establish guidelines for music venues looking to reopen safely once the public health threats from the Covid-19 pandemic are lessened. Today the city will announce its partnership…
Music & Entertainment • By Chad Swiatecki • Aug 7, 2020
With stages silent, Austin's music venues need help to stay open
In his role as spokesperson for the cluster of live music venues concentrated on Red River Street, Cody Cowan relies on a graphic visual to convey the reality of those businesses’ prospects of surviving the Covid-19 pandemic. Now fully…
Music & Entertainment • By Chad Swiatecki • Jul 31, 2020
Music Commission looks at Black cultural district, music fund based on equity
Turning its attention to equity issues facing the city’s music and creative communities, the Music Commission plans to meet every two weeks for the foreseeable future to address those concerns. The commission voted unanimously at last week’s meeting to create a…
Music & Entertainment • By Chad Swiatecki • Jul 13, 2020
City moving forward with improvements to Red River district
The city’s long-planned improvements to the streetscape of the Red River Cultural District will move forward through the summer with planning and budgeting for construction projects to improve the sidewalks and other features of the area. A recent city memo…
