NIVA Sets Course for Future Of Independent Venues and Festivals

The state of independent live venues and music festivals in the U.S. is uncertain, but the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) intends to strengthen that segment of the live ecosystem through collaboration, communication and research.

“So, what’s the state of live?” asked NIVA ED Stephen Parker, addressing the 1,300 attendees at NIVA ’24, the org’s third annual conference that took place in New Orleans June 3-5. “What word describes our situation right now? I would offer that one word is ‘unknown.’ We need the data to show us where we stand and we don’t have it yet.”
Anecdotal evidence would suggest that venues are still struggling. Fundraising in the non-profit sector, market competition, managing the shrinking margins and ticketing reform dominated the conversation during the three-day conference. The topics were tough with no easy answers but the general mood among attendees traversing the warehouse district between daily panels and music events at Republic NOLA and Generations Hall was optimistic.

Parker said NIVA’s mission should be to protect the organization’s most at-risk members (60% of members represent venues that are less than 300 capacity). NIVA led the #SaveOurStages campaign, culminating in landmark legislation in 2020 that established the $16.25 billion Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program.

“It’s why we were founded, to save the most vulnerable, which in 2020 was all of us,” explained Parker. “Today, NIVA is in a position of responsibility and we need to see the state of our industry from the eyes of our most vulnerable venues, promoters and festivals. It’s our most important job to make life easier for them, when we can.”
The grant money is gone, but what remains is a spirit of community. NIVA, through its network of chapters and a volunteer board, is channeling that communal thinking into advocacy and navigating where and how to apply its resources moving forward.

“Stability, strength and sustainability are the three things we are working towards,” offered Parker, who was named executive director of NIVA in January 2023.

Early this year, NIVA launched NIVA Savings, a program to harness the combined purchasing power of its members with discounts on items from barware to cleaning supplies.

Individual chapters were lauded for work in the political sector including NIVA co-founder Stephen Chilton who worked with the governor of Arizona to ban fake tickets; Chris Cobb and the Tennessee chapter for work with the state legislature to pass live music funding; and Audrey Fix Schaefer who helped Maryland pass the most comprehensive ticketing reform bill in U.S. history.

“First rule is education. People need to know how ticketing works,” explained Parker. “It’s foreign to someone on Capitol Hill. It’s even foreign to those fans who buy tickets without knowing what goes into that ticket and who gets what. But that education has been critical to the work we’ve done this year.”

NIVA is also carefully tracking the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit that was filed in New York last month to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which has been accused of using its market dominance to restrain competition and harm consumers.

“Forty years ago, independent stages were the norm, now multinational, publicly traded conglomerates are,” explained Parker. “Everyone in this room knows that competition is a misnomer and the increasing lack of it is, perhaps, our greatest threat.”

Parker cited closing remarks by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland during the May 23 press conference announcing the lawsuit: “We filed this lawsuit on behalf of the independent venues and promoters which should be able to compete on a level playing field.”

“If there is anything that shows the strength of what we have built over the last four years, it’s this,” added Parker.

NIVA looks at independent stages as places that help develop neighborhoods and launch careers for emerging artists, but their impact is also felt on the economy – driving tourism, creating jobs and revenue for surrounding businesses. Despite the economic impact, Parker said live entertainment is not adequately funded by the communities they serve.
“From where we sit, we need to bring balance,” stated Parker. “That’s not a legal thing. That’s not an advocacy thing in terms of government. It’s us elevating the power of independents, thus elevating why it’s so important for your dollar to be invested in independent venues.”

To generate awareness and future funding, Parker said they need research and data regarding the industry’s economic weight as well as the downside including venue closures, which aren’t being monitored. When campaigning for Save Our Stages in 2020, NIVA trumpeted the statistic that for every $1 spent on a ticket at a small venue, a total of $12 in economic activity was generated.

“We need the next version of that number, that can show beyond anecdotes what a powerful economic force [independent venues] are in every community,” said Parker. “It’s the key to our sector’s sustainability.”

NIVA plans to create a body of evidence through outside research that can help “sell” the industry and demonstrate the impact and vulnerabilities of the business sector to elected officials and the public.

“We have to do a better job collecting data, figuring out who our most vulnerable members are, where they are and how we can help them,” explained Parker. “When we are thinking about the year ahead, it’s why research and data is such a huge part of what we will do.”
At the conclusion of the conference, which had a 30% increase in attendance over 2023, Milwaukee was announced as the location for NIVA ’25. Parker was feeling optimistic.

“As tired as I am, I’m feeling energized,” he said. “I see members of our community from across the country and I see how pure their motivations are. They don’t choose this life to get rich. They don’t choose this life because it’s easy. They choose this life because they love live music, they love comedy and they love live performance.”