Last month, the Save Our Stages and Restart bills were introduced in the Senate as Congress continues to debate extending COVID-19 relief funding to businesses. Both acts call for steps to ensure the survival of independent venues across the country, hoping to guarantee money so that venues can sustain themselves as regular live performances have effectively stopped because of the pandemic.

Today, a collection of independent music venues based in New York City are participating in a day of action to call attention to the dire need to support these bills. They’ve formed a new organization called the New York Independent Venue Association, an offshoot of the already existing National Independent Venue Association, to ask Congress to help save independent venues.

Participants include Bowery Ballroom, Saint Vitus, Le Poisson Rouge, Baby’s All Right, the Knitting Factory, Elsewhere, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Market Hotel, Alphaville, Nowadays, and many more locations around the city.

Yesterday, David Byrne appeared on TODAY to talk about the plight of independent venues. More information on the Save Our Stages campaign can be found here.