Venue – COOPER GENERAL NEWS

The Anthem, a popular live music venue, is displaying a message of support on their marquee on April 3, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

It was literally a long, dark year at the Independent in San Francisco. The music and comedy shows that filled the venue’s stage and boosted the local economy have been halted since early March 2020. Apart from a few sales of goods, total sales have decreased by almost 100%.

“It’s been a devastating year for The Independent and our industry. We are the first to close and the last to reopen,” said Allen Scott, managing director of The Independent.

“All of these little clubs that really are the backbone of the live touring industry aren’t built to lose three, six – let alone twelve or 18 – months of money,” said Scott.

Owners like Scott have been eager to submit their applications to the Small Business Administration’s Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, a $ 16 billion fund that aims to get the industry going until personal entertainment can resume . Music clubs, theaters, event organizers and more can access grants of up to $ 10 million based on 2019 gross revenues under the program initiated during Covid’s second aid package.

However, the SBA portal faced technical challenges on launch day and the application process is currently suspended.

The portal should be open on Thursday afternoon. However, when it closed at 4:15 p.m., no applications were filed. On Friday it was closed all day while the agency worked on solving the technical problems. Late on Friday, the SBA announced that the portal would be closed for the whole weekend.

“If a reopening date is set, we’ll provide updates in advance so applicants have time to prepare,” the agency said in a tweet late Friday.

When the portal opens, the funds will be distributed based on availability, the agency said.

“This decision was not taken lightly as we understand that this hard-hit industry must be quickly relieved,” SBA spokeswoman Andrea Roebker said in a statement on Thursday, adding that the agency is working on getting them back in as soon as possible To put into operation.

Earlier on Friday, the SBA said, it worked with its vendors to fix the technical problems it had identified.

At the moment the wait continues. Industry reps and owners, grateful for the lifeline, were frustrated with the mishaps and the delay in getting help out the door. The challenges were reminiscent of issues faced the first few days of the paycheck protection program launch last year. This program experienced delays in processing applications.

“We are grateful to the SBA for their hard work creating this program … There is a lot of confusion and fear around the process, but we are still hopeful. The application cannot come soon enough,” said Scott. “Our livelihood depends on it.”

The National Independent Venue Association was formed during the pandemic to advocate for relief. It now represents around 3,000 local venues and promoters across the country.

NIVA estimates that hundreds of venues have permanently closed their doors due to the pandemic. And more are threatened, as the shutdown could extend into summer and autumn. Supporting the struggling venues will be key to rebuilding the economy once things are open again, the group said.

“We’re part of the backbone of our local economy because for every dollar spent on a ticket at a small music venue, it generates $ 12 in economic activity for businesses in the area,” said Audrey Fix Schafer, a board member of the NIVA.

“If they want their communities to come back, they need this economic magnet of independent venues like ours once the full reopening is certain,” she said. The group projects these venues to have a direct annual economic impact of nearly $ 10 billion on local communities.

For many venues, opening with partial capacity is not “economically feasible” due to the high overhead costs, according to the group. National tour routing is also not expected to be in full swing until artists can fully tour in reopened locations.

As owners and operators await help, they are confident that music and theater lovers can return in person later this year, and the program will have ample funding to meet those in need.

Casey Lowdermilk, assistant general manager of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in downtown San Francisco, said the venue had grown to zero from 450 employees and 80 concerts a year.

“Hopefully this money will be enough and get to all the venues that need it in time,” Lowdermilk said. “And hopefully by June or July we will have a real track of when we can return to full capacity events that are indoor venues.”

Scott of the Independent is confident that once the opening is certain, the demand will be there.

“We are ready to come back to it,” he said. “People got cooped up. We had some leading indicators in the industry, some festivals that were on sale, and some tours that all stalled. … I’m very optimistic about demand out there. And we can’t wait to open our doors. “

– CNBC’s Whitney Ksiazek contributed to this report.

RIO DE JANEIRO – Around this time last year, Rio de Janeiro’s main Carnival venue was a cauldron of glittering, scantily clad bodies packed together and swaying to the beat of the drums.

But last weekend the only trace of samba at the venue, the Sambódromo Parade Square, was a few melancholy verses that Hildemar Diniz, a composer and carnival lover named Monarco, strapped through his mask after being vaccinated on Covid19.

“There is great sadness,” said Mr. Diniz, 87, who was immaculately dressed in white. “But it’s important to save lives. People love to party, to dance, but this year we’re not getting around to it. “

In good times and bad, Rio de Janeiro’s famously boisterous carnival endures and often thrives when it gets particularly difficult.

People partied hard in 1919, during the war, hyperinflation, repressive military rule, runaway violence, and even the Spanish flu, when Carnival was considered one of the most decadent in history. Official calls to postpone it in 1892 and 1912 – due to a garbage collection crisis and to mourn the death of a statesman – were largely ignored when people in costume flocked to the streets.

This year is the only thing that weakly keeps the spirit of Carnival alive: online events by groups that traditionally put on extravagant street performances.

“It is very sad that Rio does not have a carnival,” said Daniel Soranz, the city’s health minister, last Saturday morning in the middle of the Sambodromo, when older residents were vaccinated under white tents. “This is a place to celebrate, to celebrate life.”

Gabriel Lins, a medical student who was among the dozen of vaccinees, remembered the two times he came to the sambodromo, a parade route flanked by 56,000-seat bleachers where samba schools put on elaborate, obsessively choreographed shows. He also misses the street festivals known as the blocos, which meander through virtually every neighborhood as thousands of drinks throw back, kiss strangers and dance in minimalist costumes.

“This is very, very strange for those of us who are used to Carnival,” said Mr Lins on a muggy, rainy morning. “Carnival brings us joy.”

Around him, after almost a year of fear and suffering, Brazilians were finally armed against the virus. “But today should also be a day of joy,” he said as people lined up for their recordings.

Marcilia Lopes, 85, a Portela Samba School facility that hasn’t missed a Carnival in decades, looked more relieved than happy after receiving her first dose of the China-made CoronaVac vaccine.

She was so scared of contracting the virus for the past year that she refused to leave home for anything. On her birthday, she asked her children not even to bother buying a cake – she didn’t feel like partying. So this year Ms. Lopes misses her beloved carnival, but stoically.

“I am at peace,” she said. “Lots of people suffer.”

As a second wave kicked in in the past few months, local officials across the country canceled traditional Carnival celebrations, which typically generate hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism revenues and tens of thousands of temporary jobs.

Rio de Janeiro officials had hoped they could hold Carnival by the end of this year if the cases fell as enough people would be vaccinated. Given the limited vaccine supply in Brazil, which this week forced Rio de Janeiro to suspend its vaccination campaign because it ran out of doses, that prospect now seems unlikely. New variants of the virus that scientists believe will accelerate the spread of infection are also adding to uncertainty, as are questions about the vaccine’s effectiveness.

Marcus Faustini, Rio de Janeiro’s culture minister, said there was no painful way to adapt the mega-party for this era of social distancing, painful as it is to get through the carnival season without the hype.

“There would be no point in holding this party at this point and taking the risk of causing a spate of cases,” he said. “The most important thing right now is to protect life.”

Cariocas, as the residents of Rio de Janeiro are called, are not known to be rule-hunters. That’s why the city has put together a task force of around 1,000 police officers tasked with roaming the streets and social media looking for carnival speakeasies.

While authorities have closed some underground gatherings and boat parties, the vast majority of traditional carnival party organizers appear to be obeying the rules. Maybe surprising there Some official restrictions on bars and beaches that have been overcrowded in recent days and where a city mask mandate is rarely enforced.

City officials expect hotels, which often sell out during Carnival, will see 40 percent occupancy this week. Popular tourist destinations, including the Christ the Redeemer and the Sugar Loaf, are open and receive hundreds of visitors every day.

Leo Szel, a singer and visual artist, mourns for a year without a carnival, which is particularly painful after months of mourning, isolation and gloomy news.

“For me, carnival means a break, like an autonomous temporary zone that is almost anarchic and where there is freedom,” he said.

While several popular street party groups have streamed recorded events in the past few days, Mr Szel said that he and his colleagues from Block Sereias da Guanabara, which is popular with LGBTQ revelers, have not raised money to produce an event online.

They are in the thousands who suffer financially from the loss of the street parties that have been planned for months and employ an army of choreographers, set designers, costume makers, performers and salespeople.

“It’s bleak,” said Valmir Moratelli, a documentary filmmaker who has recorded the latest carnivals hit by an economic downturn, waves of street crime and the city’s recently deceased evangelical mayor who cut funding for the samba parade little to hide his contempt for the days of hedonism.

“People are destitute, without costumes, miserable,” added Moratelli.

Mr Diniz, the composer, said that all of the pent-up frustrations and sadness Brazilians feel will fuel a carnival for the ages when it is safe to celebrate again.

“It’s so eagerly awaited,” he said. “People thirst for joy.”

Lis Moriconi contributed to the reporting.