Several of the panelists lamented that their business model hinges on bar sales when music is the heart of what they do. Katie Rose, the co-owner of Kilowatt, was listening in the audience and passionately agreed. \u201cIt sucks that we have to consider art being associated with drinking,\u201d she told KQED after the panel. \u201cIf we could find a way to change that, I think a lot of that might come with grants from the city so that music venues don\u2019t have to make decisions based on alcohol sales.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bondi said the Faight is in the process of starting a nonprofit so that it can apply for grants to fund some of its events, which skew young, D.I.Y. and experimental. \u201cWe are first and foremost a community space,\u201d he said. \u201cOur whole mission is to give artists and musicians a platform to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/250221-GEOGRAPHER-_-VIDEO-AGE-MD-08.jpg\")
Video Age opens for Gepgrapher at August Hall in San Francisco as part of Noise Pop on Feb. 21, 2025. (Martin do Nascimento\/KQED)
\nReducing city costs<\/p>\n
Venue operators praised several new programs that have cut down their operating costs in recent years. One is a relatively new Type 90 liquor license for entertainment venues. Liquor licenses used to run clubs upwards of $150,000, but the Faight got their Type 90 license for $25,000, Bondi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s massive. Wouldn\u2019t have been able to start otherwise,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Off stage in a follow-up conversation, Docto of August Hall gave props to a new parking permit reform in San Francisco that reduces the costs for venues to park tour buses outside their doors. Docto said August Hall anticipates saving $30,000 on parking alone this year. \u201cIt\u2019s not breaking the bank anymore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
How artists and fans can support their favorite small venues<\/p>\n
Several panelists pointed to the success of the Castro Theatre, a historic movie palace that Another Planet Entertainment recently reopened as a mixed-use entertainment venue. British hitmaker Sam Smith recently sold out a 20-show residency there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat gives them a raging start to their financial year,\u201d Bondi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think artists also do have some power here, like maybe push back against the agents\u201d who want them to play bigger clubs, he argued. \u201cBe like, \u2018No, I want to play Bottom of the Hill. I want to do a three-night run there, and we\u2019re gonna sell the place.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alcohol sales may no longer be the answer Another challenge for venues is that Gen Z drinks less…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-201343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-san-francisco","9":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","10":"tag-san-francisco-news","11":"tag-sf","12":"tag-sf-headlines","13":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}