$15million grants program for Victorian live music venues announced

The grants will be available to venues with capacities from 50-1200 people

The Victorian government has announced a $15million grants program for live music venues in the state, in a bid to save the struggling industry.

Grants from the new Victorian Live Music Program are set to be available for venues with a capacity of 50 to 1,200 people in Victoria that have “a solid reputation for presenting original live music and demonstrate best practice in business operations”.

Details of the grants program are scant, with no information as to how large or small each individual bursary would be. Eligibility is also currently ambiguous. Guidelines for the Victorian Live Music Program will be released “soon”, according to a press release.

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Applications for the program will open from July 16 and run until August 6, 5pm AEST, on the Creative Victoria Website.

The news comes at an increasingly difficult time for live music in Victoria, after a recent return to coronavirus lockdowns in parts of Melbourne set back the return of venues. Indoor venues had expected to be able to open with a capacity of up to 50 people from June 22 – this was shot down with new lockdowns and it is unclear when this move will be reinstated.

In early June, over 115 Victorian music venues banded together to launch the Save Our Scene petition, sponsored by leader of the Reason Party Fiona Patten. The petition pled for the Victorian Government’s intervention to protect the venues’ crippled livelihood imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The planned concert series ‘The Drive-In’ was cancelled yesterday due to its proximity to coronavirus hotspots in Melbourne. Organisers said the event was set to create 250 jobs and inject over $2 million dollars into the sector.

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