Live music and the world’s most historic venues continue to fall under economic pressure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As stimulus talks have stalled in the United States, a significant amount of venues, including most recently Washington’s U Street Music Hall, have announced permanent closure.
Thus, a rescue mission is underway with the Save Our Stages music festival, a project constructed by the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) in partnership with YouTube.
The upcoming livestream event will see some of the biggest names in music, including a few of dance music’s biggest producers, taking to a combined total of over 25 unique venues. The lineup includes a wide-ranging group of performers, such as Dave Matthews, who will be performing at Charlottesville’s Jefferson Theater, and Foo Fighters, who will play at the famed Troubadour in LA—a venue that found itself in danger of permanent closure following the onset of the pandemic.
NIVA’s board treasurer Stephen Sternschein said the idea for the festival began “with the premise that every great artist started their career at an independent, small stage, somewhere around the country.” From there, organizers began calling musicians and explaining the festival’s mission and gauging interest. Dance music will be well represented with Marshmello, Dillon Francis, and Major Lazer all having answered the call to take part.
The three-day event will be sourcing donations for the NIVA Emergency Relief Fund. Fans can catch all the action kicking off on October 16th only on the NIVA YouTube channel.
