Heroes Act That Now Includes $10 Billion Earmarked to Benefit Indie Venues Introduced in House of Representatives

(via Variety)

Guidance on reopening live entertainment venues across the country (and world for that matter) are still largely non-existent. So, the uncertainty of a return necessitates a serious financial aid package if these venues are to survive to the other side of this pandemic.

An attempt at such relief has been made with the Save Our Stages Act, introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, which has now been tucked into the new  national stimulus package, the Heroes Act, with a provision for $10 billion to go to “grants to eligible live venue operators, producers, promoters, or talent representatives to address the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on certain live venues”.

So, so many comedy venues unfortunately are in the indie venue category and have been stricken very hard by the pandemic and will need any assistance they can get to be able to reopen when that will be allowed (which will probably only when a full vaccine is available to everyone). Already, the likes of Improv Olympic, Cap City Comedy Club, and the Satellite LA have had to shudder their doors permanently for live shows.

We would very much like that to not be the case for so many other places around the country and we can only hope that get this or some sort of financial relief soon (and that it’ll be enough to survive). That will be all up to Congress of course to get their act together to pass the latest stimulus package.