Fifteen live music and performance venues across Canberra will benefit from a second round of the ACT Government’s Amp It Up! fund this year, delivering another boost to the city’s live performance industry. “Congratulations to the successful Amp It Up! applicants this year who will share in $502,575,” Minister for the Arts, Tara Cheyne commented “This second round of Amp It Up! will continue to grow opportunities for local technicians, musicians and other performance artists, and give Canberrans exciting live entertainment options.”
Minister Cheyne explained that Amp It Up! was set up last year to support small to medium sized live venues to recover after the impacts of COVID-19 by offsetting some of the costs associated with performance programming and promotion. The Minister said that in round one almost $800,000 was shared to support gigs and help revive our night-time economy across venues including UC Live, Smiths Alternative, Gang Gang Café and many more. New venues being funded in this round include Queenies in Kingston, P.J.O’Reillys Tuggeranong Irish Pub, ONE22 and Verity Lane.
“Queenies strives to be a place for strong, creative women to express themselves. This round of Amp It up funding enables us to connect our abundant local female talent with interstate stars and help strengthen the position of women in the music industry.” co-owner of Queenies in Kingston Ben Johnston commented.
“I’m looking forward to the diverse calendar of music and other life performances from July to December across the city as part of this initiative.” Minister Cheyne commented “I encourage all Canberrans to get out there and enjoy themselves and keep the live music and performance sector thriving in the ACT.”




The Minister said that live music and performance venues are an important part of Canberra’s night-time economy, the character of our city centres, and integral to the development and employment of local artists. For More Information.