The impact of COVID-19 on music venues in regional South Australia
A case study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.19334%20Keywords:
live music, regional, venues, COVID-19, South AustraliaAbstract
As spaces of social, cultural and economic production, small regional music venues are an under-explored research area that can offer insights into changing music and performance practices, place-making, and the connections between urban and regional communities. Within the context of the COVID-19 crisis, the state of precarity in which such venues operate is emphasized and exacerbated. This article will present preliminary findings from our case study of a small, regional music venue in the mid-north of South Australia that has been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated government restrictions. The pandemic has dramatically changed the way that live music is both performed and experienced, and a case study such as this offers an opportunity to discuss its impact on niche cultural and community spaces that are geographically and socially removed from the urban milieu and its policy settings. Preliminary findings suggest COVID-19 brought about both challenges (capacity restrictions and disruption of interstate travel for audiences and artists) as well as opportunities (strengthening the presence of rural voices in policy settings). The case study also highlights the need for further research on strategies for developing and sustaining regional touring pathways throughout South Australia.
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2020. ‘Business Impacts of COVID-19 Survey’. Online at https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/business-indicators/business-conditions-and-sentiments/week-commencing-30-march-2020 (accessed 8 February 2021)
Bennett, Andy, and Ian Rogers. 2016. ‘In the Scattered Fields of Memory: Unofficial Live Music Venues, Intangible Heritage, and the Recreation of the Musical Past’. Space and Culture 19/4: 490–501. https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331215623217
Brennan-Horley, Chris, John Connell and Chris Gibson. 2007. ‘The Parkes Elvis Revival Festival: Economic Development and Contested Place Identities in Rural Australia’. Geographical Research 41/5: 71–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-5871.2007.00429.x
Comunian, Robert, and Lauren England. 2020. ‘Creative and Cultural Work without Filters: Covid-19 and Exposed Precarity in the Creative Economy’. Cultural Trends 29/2: 112–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/09548963.2020.1770577
Crevoisier, Olivier, and Hugues Jeannerat. 2009. ‘Territorial Knowledge Dynamics: From the Proximity Paradigm to Multi-location Milieus’. European Planning Studies 17/8: 1223–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654310902978231
Flew, Terry, and Katherine Kirkwood. 2020. ‘The Impact of COVID-19 on Cultural Tourism: Art, Culture and Communication in Four Regional Sites of Queensland, Australia’. Media International Australia COVID-19 Special Issue: 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X20952529
Gibson, Chris. 2002. ‘Rural Transformation and Cultural Industries: Popular Music on the New South Wales Far North Coast’. Australian Geographical Studies 40/3: 337–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8470.00184
—2008. ‘Youthful Creativity in Regional Australia: Panacea for Unemployment and Out-migration?’. Geographical Research 46/2: 183–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-5871.2008.00509.x
Gibson, Chris, and John Connell, eds. 2011. Festival Places: Revitalising Rural Australia. Bristol: Channel View Publications. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781845411688
Gibson, Chris, Gordon Waitt, Jim Walmsley and John Connell. 2010. ‘Cultural Festivals and Economic Development in Nonmetropolitan Australia’. Journal of Planning Education and Research 29/3: 280–93. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X09354382
Meyrick, Julian, and Tully Barnett. 2020. ‘From Public Good to Public Value: Arts and Culture in a Time of Crisis’. Cultural Trends 30/1: 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/09548963.2020.1844542
Pacella, Jessica, Susan Luckman and Justin O’Connor. 2020. ‘Fire, Pestilence and the Extractive Economy: Cultural Policy after Cultural Policy’. Cultural Trends 29/6: 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/09548963.2020.1833308
Richardson, Chris. 2020. ‘COVID-19: Australia’s $60bn Income Pain’. Deloitte Media. Online at https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/media-releases/articles/covid-19-australias-60bn-income-pain-290420.html (accessed 4 February 2021)
Whiting, Sam. 2019. ‘“You’re not strangers if you like the same band”: Small Venues, Music Scenes, and the Live Music Ecology’. PhD thesis. Melbourne: RMIT University.
