SideDoor ‘Back To Live’ offers small grants to alternative music venues
Indie live music booking platform SideDoor is doing its part to jump-start post-COVID touring by offering financial support to alternative venues and promoters.
Some of the most memorable gigs have always happened in backyards, basements, art galleries, and book stores. Making those moments happen by matching musicians with hosts and part-time promoters was why the booking platform SideDoor was created.
Think of SideDoor as house concert booking on steroids.
Now as live music crawls back from the COVID shutdown, SideDoor is taking the extra step of offering mini-grants up to $500 to help cover show costs.
Hosts can apply for financial support to subsidize eligible costs of a live performance of music, dance, theatre, comedy, spoken word, or even a lecture booked on the platform. The show must be ticketed with Side Door and happen before December 31, 2021.
While artists are not technically eligible, they can work with a host or venue to organize a show and apply for a grant. Both new and existing Side Door hosts are eligible.
“As a host myself, I know that there can be a feeling of uncertainty when you begin (or begin again) hosting shows in your space,” says Laura Simpson, CEO and co-founder of Side Door. “We want to de-risk this opportunity for people with great spaces, while opening more doors to artists who are starved for places to perform and enable a robust touring circuit.”
“And as an artist who built my career on these kinds of shows,” co-founder Dan Mangan continues, “I envision a world where shows can be booked in bespoke spaces anywhere in the world between perfect strangers in minutes. Playing impactful shows to intimate and attentive audiences in non-traditional spaces allowed me to build a loyal audience and make a living. Until you can sell hundreds of tickets in any city, it’s just the most artistically and financially viable way to tour.”
To apply for the subsidy click here.
For more information about hosting a Side Door show, visit www.sidedooraccess.com.
Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.
