Thanks to the local Mayor and Commissioners and the Central Services Department, we now have the outdoor retail area on weekends through March. Since this has been finalized, we have purchased a tent to use every Friday and Saturday. Come on down and enjoy the fresh air, new propane heater, and the cute tent to enjoy time safely with your friends. Be sure to bundle up.
We also have the options for hot Pouch Pies to enjoy a tasty treat along with a nice half pour of the beers on tap. We have recently expanded the herbal teas to help support our local entrepreneur Me+Tea. Come check our selection of delicious blends from Kava mint which has an adaptogenic herb, to elderberry tea, to the fruity Happy to Be Me blend. Stop by and have a tea while you play Ms. Pac-man.
This year has been quite the long haul. From starting off 2020 with a bang to being shut down for two and a half months, to learning how to survive the slow drag through the months following. The quick conversion to online shops and fast acting permission from the Mayor to sell beer and wine unopened along with growlers of beer, has made a huge difference for us. Recently, we started booking private date nights in the theatre to offer a place away from home, thats safe and relatively empty. Our new side patio has been super helpful along with the occasional space out front on the weekends. we even have giant propane heater now as well.
Our website offers t-shirts, and soon will offer retro hoodies and the ole Flicker emblem. We also have new features of adding beer unopened or in a growler for carry away. Wine and the FRose slushee can be purchased in growler form as well. When I heard that Pouch Pies had closed, I was so sad. Then I learned they had relocated and were selling them frozen at the Farmers Market. Well that disappointment turned to excitement when we reached out and found they could deliver and sell wholesale. This year has been quite the adventure.
With learning that the virus was mostly spread from air droplets, we knew we could not have live shows for a while. With a little help from Escape the Space, we decided to start offering Private Theatre rentals for small groups. These Date Nights could allow people from the same quarantine groups to hang out downtown Athens, GA and order drinks while watching their favorite TV show, movie, or sports show. It’s a place away from home for hanging out and getting a change of scenery. This private event space could be a way to save our venue. Hopefully we will be booking private events downtown Athens, GA for the foreseeable future.
Garden Seating
After a few more weeks of realizing we were not bouncing back as students returned and locals stayed home, we decided to expand outdoors. Our new patio features two propane heaters for winter, along with 8 Adirondack chairs and two cafe tables and sets of chairs. This space has been decorated with cafe lights and firefly solar lights in the crepe myrtle that shades the garden. Come out and enjoy our new outdoor patio area in downtown Athens, GA. It is super private Monday and Tuesday as our neighbor Iron Factory has been closed those days. We have cult movie viewings and occasionally a firepit. Enjoy this nice little patio area soon! Outside is so much safer.
Hopefully, things will return to normal and our music events will be better than ever. The loss of Live music has been more devastating to our community’s health than any other aspect beyond the virus itself. Let’s hold the vision of a new and amazing way of living in 2021. Stay safe Athens, we love you and hope to be able to crowd inside for a live show very soon.
As live music venues have gone dark around the world, we have struggled to convert to a bar and event venue. This seems the only way to make use of our theatre space for which we still pay rent. By booking the theatre for your private event, you help ensure that Athens will keep being a music center. We have been really impressed with the efforts of NIVA to reach out and create a ground swell of support for these small stages that helped each one of them get their start. Read more about their fight as we push congress for more support.
Here’s a beautiful letter to congress.
“SUPERSTARS AND RISING STARS BAND TOGETHER TO ASK CONGRESS TO SUPPORT INDEPENDENT MUSIC VENUES ACROSS THE COUNTRY IN THE QUEST to #SaveOurStages artists’ Letter To Congress
June 18, 2020
We, the undersigned artists, respectfully submit this letter in support of NIVA’s request for federal assistance for independent music venues and promoters across the United States.
We will know America is “back” when our music venues are filled with fans enjoying concerts safely. The live music experience is inextricably tied to our nation’s cultural and economic fabric. In fact, 53% of Americans – that’s 172 million of us – attended a concert last year.
We urge you to remember we are the nation that gave the world jazz, country, rock & roll, bluegrass, hip hop, metal, blues, and R&B. Entertainment is America’s largest economic export, with songs written and produced by American artists sung in every place on the globe. All of these genres of music, and the artists behind them, were able to thrive because they had neighborhood independent venues to play in and hone their craft, build an audience, and grow into the entertainers that bring joy to millions.
Independent venues give artists their start, often as the first stage most of us have played on. These venues were the first to close and will be the last to reopen. With zero revenue and the overwhelming overhead of rent, mortgage, utilities, taxes and insurance, 90% of independent venues report that if the shutdown lasts six months and there’s no federal assistance, they will never reopen again.
We are asking you to support NIVA’s request for assistance so these beloved venues can reopen when it’s safe and welcome us and our fans back in. The collapse of this crucial element in the music industry’s ecosystem would be devastating.
Independent venues are asking for an investment to secure their future, not a handout. One Chicago report found that every dollar small venues generate in ticket sales results in $12 of economic activity. If these independent venues close forever, cities and towns across America will not only lose their cultural and entertainment hearts, but they will lose the engine that would otherwise be a driver of economic renewal for all the businesses that surround them.
With respect and solidarity, we, as artists and as community members ourselves, urge you to pass federal legislation that will help #SaveOurStages.”
Book a private event to help #saveourstages
… if you know any musicians who would like to help save our stages, send them tothis page. We really need for the federal government to offer more comprehensive support for small venues like us so that we can thrive, instead of barely surviving. If you’d like to support musicians as well as our venue tune in to the Live Streamed music event on our youtube channel.
We would love to get back to large birthday parties, weddings, dance parties, as well as live music events as soon as possible. For now, we can offer to host private parties of groups of max 25 in our theatre for a well-spaced, well-ventilated experience. We will keep the area closed to anyone not part of the group. Reach out to schedule your private event for your quarantine pod.
We are famous! We just celebrated our 20 year anniversary with a huge party. The free celebratory shows from Scott Spillane, Elf Power, Deep State and Dj Mahogany were a big success. Big thanks to everyone who performed and come out to celebrate. Read more in the Flagpole article here.
Since opening in 2000, Flicker has had a few different parents, and we all hold the same vision, keeping a community space to enjoy the arts of Athens, Georgia. We have such a talented community and holding space for the artists, musicians, and performers is our goal. Visit us, support the dream of keeping downtown magical. We have survived massive property tax hikes and worked hard to evolve with the raising costs of being downtown. But we can’t survive without you.
The current crew of staff for Flicker includes several families. When you visit Flicker, you support not only the artists, musicians, and dreamers, you support a local family with a new baby, a local family with a young child, a local family with two children, several talented musicians, artists and more. Our Flicker family is large and appreciates the love and support of our community. Without you we would not have such a great place to celebrate what makes Athens great.
