A bastion of inclusion for the LGBTQ community and an incubator for live music and local DJs is in danger of shuttering permanently at the end of the month. Cheer Up Charlies opened in East Austin in 2009 as a food truck, followed by a brick and mortar establishment a year later. The venue moved to the Red River Cultural District in 2014. Regardless of where it was located, Cheer Up Charlies has managed to cultivate a singular identity and has one of the coolest spaces in the city since its inception.
Bar owners Maggie Lea and Tamara Hoover currently owe $58,000 in rent payments, which must be made to avoid closure. In fact, the property has already been listed as available and advertised by a management company.
To avoid that outcome, Cheer Up is pulling together all the finances they can, and they are actively looking for a loan to cover the costs—or potentially a long-term investor and partner in the business. Lea and Hoover specified that it would need to be a good fit with someone who cares about the Austin and queer communities, and the window to find an ideal candidate is brief.
While the club’s founders expressed conflict about making the news known as a for-profit business, they also said they know how important the space has been to people and didn’t want patrons to suddenly arrive at a locked gate come Sept. 1. The news comes as a gut punch during pride week in Austin with major LGBTQ events scheduled for the capital city this weekend.
For now, Lea and Hoover are exhausting all possibilities to keep the beloved bar open, but it’s very possible that Austin could soon be without one of it’s best late night hangouts.
Great Job Bryan C. Parker & the Team @ Austin Monthly Magazine Source link for sharing this story.
