Live music will soon return to the Brown County Music Center more than a year since the venue’s doors were closed due to the pandemic.
New shows continue to be announced to fill up the 2021 calendar, with the most recent being a new date for the band Halestorm on Sept. 11. That will kick off the BCMC’s return to live music.
“It’s exciting. That’s what we’re here to do. We’re here to bring people and fans back into the county and see shows. The fact that they are playing this year three months from now, it’s great. It really is,” BCMC Executive Director Christian Webb said.
Most shows from the 2020 schedule have found new homes in this year’s calendar. Martina McBride was the only show to cancel from last year’s schedule.
If you would have asked Webb three months ago if live music would be possible by September, he would have said no.
“It has been changing so much,” he said.
“… We’re going to continue following local, state and federal guidelines, especially county, but it changes. Every day it changes.”
Because of those changes, it is not yet known if masks will be required by those who catch a show at the BCMC this fall and winter, or if having shows at full capacity will be allowed.
The plan is to do a social media post about what guests can expect at the beginning of September, about two weeks before the Halestorm show.
Two more new show announcements are expected this week with about three to six more coming for the rest of the year.
Who’s on the schedule
Within the last month, the music center has been announcing multiple new shows including John Hiatt and the Jerry Douglas Band; Mary Chapin Carpenter, Marc Cohn and Shawn Colvin; a two-night Broadway fright night in October; Chris Thile; and Clay Walker.
Other shows from 2020 taking place later this year include LeAnn Rimes, Gordon Lightfoot, Kenny G, Melissa Etheridge and Warrant. Reschedule dates are available on the music center’s website at browncountymusiccenter.com.
“Right now, the focus is on filling the calendar in 2021. We do have dates that are floating for 2022, but we want to focus on trying to finish this year really strong,” Webb said.
The Hiatt, Thile and Walker shows are already on sale. At the June 16 CVC meeting, Webb said all three shows have brought in more than $72,000.
The BCMC new shows are being announced during a “mad rush” of other venues in Indiana announcing shows too. “It’s really kind of a saturated time,” Webb said.
“When I look at the namesake and some of the artists we have for this market, I think these numbers are a little bit low right now, and I think by the time the shows play off, we will be right in line where we need to be, if not better,” he added about money in the bank from new shows.
Light at the end
During the nearly 200 days the brand-new concert hall was able to operate, the BCMC welcomed 52,000 people through its doors.
The music center was one of the first businesses to close once COVID-19 cases began popping up locally. The business did the “pandemic pivot” to become a community center where it hosted government meetings, jury trials, and the health department’s COVID-19 testing and vaccine site.
The health department and clinic operations will move out of the music center by July 1 to 200 Hawthorne Drive. Jury trials have also returned to the courthouse.
Because of the functions it was hosting, the music center received $239,000 per a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the county commissioners and the music center. The music center also had an MOU with the commissioners and the Brown County Health Department for $20,000, which came from grant funding last year, not from the CARES Act.
Webb said in April that the health department MOU was extended through June 30 this year, and said that hosting the department through the end of June helped bring in an additional $5,000 to $6,000 a month.
“It kept our lights on and kept us going. We were constantly changing dates, still in contact with the artists and managers, but there were times where it was tough,” Webb said of the MOUs.
“We want to do the best we can. It was tough, but to kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel is very exciting.”
The innkeepers tax has been used to pay the mortgage payments on the music center. The venue will be required to pay interest only until the end of 2021, which is about $37,000 a month.
Last April, when not as many visitors were coming to the county or paying innkeepers tax due to the pandemic, the Brown County Council also approved transferring $150,000 from the county’s motor vehicle highway fund to a special line in the county’s general fund to pay the mortgage. The $150,000 was paid back to the county from the innkeepers tax fund at the end of last year.
In 2020, the music center received more than $120,000 in grant funding to help cover costs, including $72,600 from the Paycheck Protection Program.
More funding coming?
The music center has also applied for a portion of new $10 billion in federal grant funding made available to independent music venues across the country. The Shuttered Venue Operators grant program was approved as part of the recent COVID-19 stimulus package. Based on the grant’s formula, the BCMC is eligible for up to $1.9 million, but the exact amount to be received is not yet known.
At the June 16 Brown County Convention and Visitors Commission meeting, Webb told the board that the United States Small Business Administration changed the management for the program one day before their award window was to open. The venue’s award window ends on June 24, but Webb said he was not sure if the management change would affect when they find out how much grant money they will receive.
More than 8,200 venues applied for the SVOG across the country, with 102 of those in Indiana, including the BCMC.
If the BCMC gets funding from this grant, it will come in one lump sum, Webb said.
In April, county commissioner Diana Biddle suggested that the music center put together a “wish list” of what it would like to spend the full amount on after the deferred income is paid off, like paving the parking lot, then prioritize that list based on how much money was received. Biddle also serves on the venue’s management group.
A recent law signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb which reduces the number of wetlands regulated and protected by the state means that the music center could expand its parking lot, which was previously restricted due to a wetland, Biddle said.
If the parking lot is expanded, there would no longer be a need for the venue to provide shuttles to guests from other parking areas in town. But a discussion was had in a management group meeting in April on whether other local business or hotels may take up providing shuttles to shows, because some people did like shuttling to shows from downtown.
Management group co-president Barry Herring suggested that the SVOG money be held back for possible show cancellations.
Martina McBride canceled her show here for 2021 due to a scheduling conflict, which is a loss of around $130,000 on the venue’s balance sheet. Refunds for that show will be handled by whoever a person bought tickets from, so if tickets were bought from the music center’s box office directly, those seeking a refund need to contact the music center directly, or Ticketmaster.
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The Brown County Music Center box office will be open on the days shows go on sale. Those hours are typically Fridays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The outdoor ticketing windows will be open.
When the windows are not open, people can purchase tickets or send other inquiries to [email protected]. Hanlon can set up a time to do a box office purchase over the phone.
If someone wishes to purchase tickets or request a refund from the box office, they can email [email protected]. Audience Services Manager Andrea Swift-Hanlon can set up a time to do a box office purchase over the phone.
To check out the 2021 concert calendar, visit browncountymusiccenter.com or find the venue on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get more updates as new shows are announced.
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