Sydney Live Music Venues Boosted With Grants Ahead Of Impending Return

A number of popular live music venues across Sydney have been awarded grants as more businesses look to coming out of the COVID pandemic.

The City Of Sydney has today confirmed it will hand out 20 grants to "night-time and live music businesses", worth a total of $222,334, including Venue 505 in Newtown, Golden Age Cinema & Bar, Giant Dwarf Theatre and Gaelic Club in Surry Hills and MoshPit in Erskineville.

The grants will go towards upgrading facilities and equipment, improving acoustics and minimising noise.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for Sydney’s night-time economy, which was only just beginning to breathe again after the lockout laws were lifted in January,” Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.

“Sydney’s core night-time economy is not only critical to our city’s future – generating more than $4.2 billion in revenue each year and employing more than 35,500 people across nearly 5,000 businesses – it is key to our vision for Sydney as a thriving global city.

“Businesses that operate at night were among the first and hardest hit by COVID-19 restrictions, with many hospitality workers and musicians not only losing employment, but also unable to access financial support from the Federal Government given many are casual or migrant workers.

“As we cautiously ease physical distancing restrictions and return to the wonderful restaurants, bars and venues around our city, it is critical that we do everything we can to support these businesses to get back on their feet and enter the recovery phase.

“These grants announced today are on top of previously announced COVID-19 relief measures and are part of our long term investment in Sydney’s night time economy, supporting live music and performance venues to diversify or expand their programming and upgrade their equipment.”