Cade Lucas
Live music in the inner-west has received a welcome boost, with four Maribyrnong venues scoring grants from the state government’s Victorian Gig Fund.
Earlier this month Kindred Studios and Mantra Studios in Yarraville and Mama Chens and Misfits Space in Footscray were each awarded $10,000 from the fund as part of its 10,000 gigs initiative.
Kindred Studios General Manager Cherie Watkin said the money would help them expand their live music programming.
“We are going to run a series of Thursday afternoon live music events to give a broader range of the community access to live music,” Ms Watkin said.
“We’re targeting people who may not necessarily be able to go to live music events late at night or on weekends when they’re usually on. Retirees, work from home people, parents, families etc.”
Ms Watkin said the grant would cover the artists fees for the Thursday afternoon shows, which will primarily feature jazz and soul musicians.
She said the venue would cover all other costs, but with the live music industry going through a challenging period post-Covid, government support to help pay artists was vital.
“The culture’s changed (around live music) and you can’t rely on alcohol sales to cover artists fees anymore and we don’t want to anyway, so door fees and grants like this one will help cover the costs.”
Cherie Watkin said having four Maribyrnong venues receive grants was great news for local musicians and music lovers.
“It’d definitely gonna help put us on the map for live music, both us and the western suburbs as a whole, because we are lacking some live music spaces for original music and supporting original, contemporary artists.”
Thanks to government support, it’s a situation Kindred Studios are slowly helping to change.
Not only will the 10,000 gigs grant help put on shows on Thursday afternoons, but a $50,000 federal government grant the venue received earlier this year, is about to result in Wednesday night shows too.
“We’re just about to launch a battle of the bands to start that off,” said Ms Watkin, who added the Thursday afternoon gigs would begin in the coming months.
“We’re very passionate about supporting local artists and the community so these grants are really welcome.”
