The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) is calling on the Portland City Council to halt plans for a Live Nation-backed concert hall in the city’s downtown, warning it could harm Maine’s live performance industry and local economy.
The proposed 3,300-seat venue is being developed with support from Live Nation, a major player in the U.S. live entertainment market. NIVA says the project would threaten existing small and mid-sized venues, redirect spending away from Maine businesses, and give control of the city’s music scene to a national corporation.
NIVA representatives joined Maine venue owners, promoters, and artists in Portland to lobby city officials for a moratorium on the development. State law allows municipalities to impose temporary bans on certain projects to prevent potential harm from residential, commercial, or industrial growth.
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“Portland already has a rich and self-sustaining music ecosystem,” NIVA Executive Director Stephen Parker said in a statement. “The Live Nation project would strip value from this community and send it to shareholders across the globe. City Council has a clear choice today: protect Main Street, or hand it over to a monopoly.”
Lauren Wayne, president of State Theatre Presents, said Portland’s music scene has developed over years through local effort and investment.
“It’s been built show by show, venue by venue, for the benefit of Maine artists and fans,” Wayne said. “A monopoly-operated venue would put that legacy at risk and erode the local character that makes this city unique.”
