Local live music and entertainment venues awarded COVID relief grants
Over a dozen Oakland County live music and entertainment venues will receive a portion of more than $3.4 million through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) Michigan Stages Survival Grant Program.
The grant program was targeted toward helping these types of venues, which were closed for most of 2020 and one of the industries hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 100 one-time grants, up to $40,0000, will be distributed by the MEDC to venues across the state. This includes 15 businesses in Oakland County that will received over $562,000 grants to help retain 40 jobs.
The grant applications were reviewed and approved by the Michigan Independent Venue and Promoter Association (MIVPA) and will be used for working capital to support payroll expenses, rent, mortgage payments, utility expenses, or costs related to reopening a business.
A total of 392 applications were received with 101 grants across 30 counties being awarded. A full list of grant recipients is available on https://www. michiganbusiness.org/ stages/.
Venues were required to meet eligibility requirements that included:
• Be located in Michigan
• Produce and/or present live, disciplined-based performance experiences
• Demonstrate at least 33 percent of 2019 gross revenues are from the sale of tickets for live music or entertainment events or receive at least 70 percent of its earned revenue through cover charges or tickets sales, production fees or production reimbursements, nonprofit educational initiatives, or the sale of event beverages, food or merchandise
• Demonstrate secondquarter revenues from April 1, 2020, through June 30, 2020, were not greater than 10 percent of secondquarter revenue from April 1, 2020, through June 30, 2019
• Employ less than 30 full-time employees
Oakland County awardees with total grant amount and number of jobs retained if applicable:
• 20 Front Street Concepts, Lake Orion: $38,400
• 360 Event Productions, Lake Orion: $40,000 3 jobs,
• Avon Players, Rochester Hills: $10,206
• Bad Kitty LLC., Ferndale: $40,000, 5 jobs
• BG Media, Royal Oak: $40,000, 8 jobs,
• Clarkston Village Players, Clarkston: $10,640
• Encore Performing Arts Center, Pontiac: $31,500
• Go Comedy Improv Theater, Ferndale: $39,009, 4 jobs
• JAG Entertainment, Wixom: $39,912, 1 job
• Oakland Theatre Arts Guild, Waterford: $25,000, 1 job
• Pike Street Pool, Pontiac: $39,009, 9 jobs
• St. Dunstan’s Theatre Guild of Cranbrook, Bloomfield Hills: $40,000
• Strand Events, LLC., Pontiac: $40,000
• The Theater Ensemble, Rochester: $40,000, 7 jobs
• Tipping Point Theatre, Northville: $40,000, 2 jobs