Thousands of Asheville homes and businesses are still without running water or power nearly two weeks after Hurricane Helene.
That’s forced many small businesses to shut down, including the many bars and music venues that support Asheville’s music scene. But others in the music industry are rushing to help out.
To find out more, I visited the Neighborhood Theatre in NoDa this past Friday. It was busy, as usual. Friends and couples scanned their tickets at the door and filed into the dimly lit lobby, chatting about the night's act: indie folk artists Noah and Abby Gunderson.
At the merch table, band manager Dan Cable said the musicians were scheduled to perform in Asheville the following night, but the venue there, Eulogy, still didn't have power.
"They were really hopeful that we weren’t going to have to cancel, just because they felt like it could have been good for the community ... but it seems like everything is in too rough a shape," he said.
As the show began, the audience sank into their seats, music drifting over the crowd.
Hurricane closures stir memories of COVID
Greg McCraw, who operates the Charlotte theater, says canceling a sell-out show like the Gundersons can cost a venue like his hundreds of dollars, maybe thousands.
That’s why the endless show cancellations in western North Carolina make him worried for the venues there.
"You can only go so long with no revenue or decreased revenue, as a small business owner, and make it," he said.
It reminded him of when his venue shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This is exactly the same but worse," he said, "Because these venues are having to deal with cleaning up damage from floods or fallen trees, or I mean — think about your house."
But he and other venue operators in North Carolina have a plan to help. He said it all started a few days after the storm.
"There was this thread with all of the venue operators in North Carolina," he said. In this group email, someone suggested each venue donate a dollar per ticket this month to relief efforts, including an emergency fund for venues in western North Carolina.
McGraw and five others signed up.
"I didn’t think twice," he said.
Other venues, like the RamKat in Winston-Salem, also offered to rebook canceled shows and share the profit. A co-owner of the RamKat, Richard Emmett, said his venue successfully rebooked a Halloween show, with more possible.
All around them, other artists jumped in to help, too, including big names like Luke Combs, James Taylor and Eric Church. They’ve announced a hurricane relief concert in Charlotte this month, and Ben Folds has a relief concert planned in Wilmington.
"People in this industry and musicians are well known for coming together to raise money, awareness for causes, so that’s exactly what happened," McCraw said.
'You don't realize how much people want to help until something like this happens'
All this help could be a lifeline, said Liz Tallent, who handles marketing for two Asheville venues, The Orange Peel and Rabbit Rabbit. The storm's financial devastation is sure to continue in the coming weeks.
She said they had big shows planned with Vampire Weekend, Violent Femmes and Lake Street Dive — but now, they’ve issued more than $1 million in refunds and are scrambling to keep essential employees paid.
"We don’t know whether this is going to be four weeks or eight weeks, but we need to be able to reopen, and we can’t do that if our employees have all moved away or sought other work," Tallent said.
Still, she's thankful the venues in downtown Asheville are still standing. Just two miles away, a venue in the River Arts District called Salvage Station was completely destroyed by flooding, and the owners have created a GoFundMe.
Tallent said the swell of support from people in Asheville and the wider music community has been heartening.
"The amount of neighbor-helping-neighbor and community members showing up for each other, that part of it has been kind of mind-blowing, really," she said. "You don’t realize how much people want to help each other until something like this happens.
In a town driven by the arts and tourism, reopening Asheville’s music venues will be crucial to bringing back visitors and reviving the local economy. Tallent said she hopes that happens sooner rather than later.
