Le Poisson Rouge in NYC closed, working on streaming live performances + more

New York City boozy art space Le Poisson Rouge have released a statement regarding their current status and future plans:

Hello again,

Sunday evening, New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio announced an executive order to close all music venues across the city. The decision on how to deal with the Coronavirus outbreak has been taken out of our hands and we intend to comply with the mayor’s order. As much as this hurts our hearts and our business, we believe this is the right thing to do and understand the need for mass closures at this time.

Though we may be temporarily shutting our doors to the public, we cannot quarantine our love for music. We refuse to give up. We are working on streaming live performances and programming, unveiling archived concert footage, and engaging the independent music community like never before. If you are a musician or have a musical story to tell – let us know! We want to enable you to get the support you need. Now more than ever, we need the healing power of music and art.

If you have a ticket to an upcoming show, please be patient. There are a lot of logistics involved with figuring out refunds and exchanges and we are doing our best to sort it out. Refunds are taking longer than usual to process so please be patient. If you can hold onto your ticket for a rescheduled show, please do so.

We applaud the communal effort towards social distancing, but are faced with the harsh reality that these decisions also obliterate income for half a million New Yorkers who work in the Leisure and Hospitality industry. LPR’s bartenders, servers, bussers, porters, technicians, kitchen staff, security guards, etc. face this struggle head on. Many of them rely on hourly wages and tips to provide for their families and suddenly face the prospect of weeks without work.

Many of you have reached out to us about what you can do to support LPR and its employees in these uncertain times – we are so grateful for this response. Here’s how you can donate to our employees and ongoing operational expenses:

Sign up for an LPR Membership via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LPRNYC

Donate via Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/lprnyc

Donate via Venmo: https://venmo.com/lprnyc

The independent bars, restaurants, and venues of New York are making extreme sacrifices to flatten the curve. We need our government and financial institutions to recognize that and lend us a hand. We call on Mayor De Blasio, Governor Cuomo, President Trump, and all of our elected officials at the local, state, and national level to assemble a relief package for the events industry.

Follow our site, social media, and mailing list for more.

Stay tuned and stay safe,

The LPR Family