Keep Jive Alive

One of Adelaide’s most beloved and longest standing live music venues, Jive, needs your support to keep the music on!

Over the past 20 years Jive’s owner, Tam Boakes, has been instrumental in nurturing and developing the Adelaide scene from the venues home on Hindley Street.  Offering countless South Australian bands the opportunity to kickstart their music careers, while being a constant touring stop for some of the world’s biggest names. Chic & Nile Rogers, The Cat Empire, Tame Impala, Julia Jacklin, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and thousands more have made their mark on the venue, many returning time after time.

As a dedicated small capacity live music venue, Jive has been hit hard by COVID-19. Whilst many other venues have been able to lean on alternative offerings to minimise the economic impact of restrictions, Jive hasn’t had the ability to pivot by offering food or alternative venue arrangements, resulting in an ever-growing financial stress on the beloved Adelaide venue and owner.

After six months of closures and limited capacity shows, limited funding options and no access to the Federals Government’s JobKeeper package, the bills are piling up and without bridging funds to get through a tough next few months Jive is facing the reality of potential closure.

“Along with the rest of the live entertainment and hospitality industry, Jive has had to do everything it can to stay afloat over the last nine months,” Said Jive owner Tam Boakes.

“As a dedicated fit-for-purpose live music venue, I haven’t been able to ‘pivot’ or diversify services to supplement some of our financial shortfalls and all I’ve been in a position to do is budget and managing cash flow to try and see out the pandemic.”

“The reality is that, although band bookings and tours are returning for 2021 and we have been in discussion with various funding bodies, unless we find a financial lifeline I’m going to have to further extend on my personal and business loans and eventually I will find myself in a position where I won’t be able to sustain the business.”

To help keep Jive open, a small collective of Adelaide’s music community have banded together to deliver Keep Jive Alive; a crowdfunding campaign created in support of and in consultation with Tam, designed to give back to a venue and owner that has offered so much to tens of thousands of artists and punters.

The cornerstone of the Keep Jive Alive crowdfunding campaign is the ‘Jive Wall of Fame’, that will see supporters purchase a personally engraved tile that will take pride of place inside the venue, to stand as a testament to the strength and support of the local community in keeping the venue open.

In addition to the ‘Jive Wall of Fame’ the Keep Jive Alive campaign will be offering a collection of other unique and one-off rewards including a limited-edition Jive branded beer from the team at Big Shed Brewing Concern, a limited edition ‘Keep Jive Alive’ t-shirt and a collection of one of a kind Jive memorabilia.

The Keep Jive Alive campaign is being managed by Emma Coyle, Leigh McGrane, Jack Fenby, Sian Walden, Joel Byrne, Luke Penman, Matthew Hayward and Adam Vanderwerf on behalf of Tam Boakes.

Jive is currently operating at a maximum 50% capacity, and this has been an ongoing situation for over six months now, with several months closed entirely. This funding will be used to cover operational expenses for the next couple of months as gigs start to pick back up, and in hope that venue restrictions are lifted soon and capacity can be increased.

For the sake of transparency - several funding applications have been submitted for Jive, where all income will go to future performing artists. This campaign is specifically to cover venue overheads to keep the venue afloat - and every single dollar donated is very much appreciated and will support keeping those doors open, artists supported and our community thriving. Thank you.