How music venues help grow night economy
More needs to be done to support live music in order to lure audiences and create opportunities in city centres, writes Struan Douglas
According to the 2015 PwC Outlook report, SA’s music market is worth an annual R2bn. Live music is worth half of that, is growing at 8% and is expected to reach R1.5bn in 2019. Yet, live music venues are facing very tough times. Tagores, Moholo Live and Straight no Chaser in Cape Town have all closed down. In Durban, musicians recently marched through the streets to protest against the closing of the public venue, the Stable Theatre due to mismanagement. Founding partner of the Orbit in Braamfontein, Aymeric Peguillan has left due to unsustainable programming and the Bassline in Newtown is closing its doors at month-end to become a full-time festival and production company for the annual Africa Day megafestival. Brad Holmes founded the Bassline 22 years ago. After 10 years of operating a 60-seat jazz venue in Melville and slowly expanding it into a 150-seat venue, he moved into the 1,000-seat venue, previously the Mega music warehouse, for another 10 years. There, Holmes promoted Af...
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