Of those awards, so far live venue operators and promoters have received 677 grants; performing arts organizations and talent representatives have received 232 and 186, respectively. According to the SBA, at least 5,004 live music venues and promoters have applied for a grant, which means roughly 13.5% have received award notices. In recent weeks, the SVOG program within the SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance has brought on the team that quickly rolled out the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which opened in May.
Among the program’s award recipients so far are promoter Nederlander Concerts, which received $10 million; festival producer Danny Wimmer Presents, which received $9.4 million; and Colorado agency Madison House, which received $1.8 million. Southern California venue owner Lance Sterling of Sterling Venue Ventures received an award notice of more than $7 million on Friday — three days after his Canyon Club venue in Agoura Hills hosted a Foo Fighters underplay.
“I get nervous for people to see that [we were awarded $7 million] because they don’t know that I owe $11.8 million,” he says. “Even with that award sounding so big, each venue is a million dollars more than that in debt.” Sterling adds that he has not yet received the money in his bank account.
