Exterior of the Hi-Dive (photo by Carly W.)
By Kyle Harris, Westword | “Suppose we’ll just go fuck ourselves again.” That’s how Curtis Wallach, co-owner of the hi-dive, reacted to Governor Jared Polis’s June 30 announcement that with COVID-19 on the rise again in the state, Colorado was closing bars and nightclubs within 48 hours, after having allowed them to reopen in a limited capacity two weeks earlier.
The news from Polis came the same week that the Colorado Liquor Enforcement Division sent a note to establishments that sell booze, revealing that the state would be increasing the cost of liquor licenses to help stave the economic bleeding that the government is experiencing during the shutdown. For clubs and venues that have been shuttered for nearly four months, this means that while most, if not all, of their revenue has disappeared during the pandemic shutdown, they will be expected to somehow scrounge up even more money for unexpected fees in order to help the state.
Before the June 30 shutdown announcement, Chris Zacher, the Colorado captain of the National Independent Venue Association and the head of Levitt Pavilion Denver, had reached out to Westword regarding that liquor license fee increase. “While the general public might be excited to hear that music venues can reopen, what they do not understand are the intricacies and how they affect our ability to reopen,” he said. “Take Levitt, for example. Under the guidelines put in place by the State of Colorado, we can only open with a capacity of 175 patrons in a space that fits 12K people. A capacity limitation of 175 people doesn’t begin to cover the cost to produce a show. In short, we’re handcuffed in the back of a car at the bottom of a lake and the State is trying to sell us on the air bubble in the backseat being a lifeline. We’re waving a flag here. This is not a drill. The music scene as we all know it is not going to look the same very soon….”
Now that air bubble — reopening at limited capacity — is gone.
Read the rest of the story here:
https://www.westword.com/music/colorado-music-venues-bar-closures-hi-dive-11732694