Austin queer bar Cheer Up Charlies saved from closure as fans come to the rescue
Megan Thee Stallion, John Legend, Rico Nasty and Solange have all appeared on stage at Cheer Up Charlies.
Mark
A well-known LGBTQ+ bar in Austin, Texas, was threatened with closure unless it could find $58,000 by the end of August.
Cheer Up Charlies has been running for the past 16 years. At the end of last week, it announced on social media that its landlord had given it notice to vacate unless it paid back-dated rent a.s.a.p. The announcement came just hours before the weekend’s Austin Pride festival.
The problem appears to be that although busy at weekends, attendance on weekdays has dwindled in the last few years.
“We found out Monday that we have a little over 10 days left in the space,” an Instagram posting on the official Cheer Up Charlies Instagram account stated on Friday. “For those who see our videos of packed out weekend nights, just know that a venue our size cannot operate and be sustainable on just 2 nights a week.
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“Cheer Ups should be a red herring for anyone worried about how the chips are going to fall here in Texas and especially in regards to the local music industry here in Austin in the coming years. We’ve done and are doing everything we can to enlist emergency fundraising but we also get it. That this just might be the end.
“Trying to keep a steady cashflow with rising costs of operations and a decline (almost non-existence) in weekday foot traffic or sales has proven to take a huge toll on operators like us leasing physical spaces these days. Luckily we have had a 16-year track record of creating vivid memories and stories, one brought up to us just this morning that made us laugh was when an entire SXSW showcase on the outside stage with Shannon & The Clams went silent because a patron unplugged something on stage to charge his phone.
“The Spits, Future Islands, Lil Yachty, Margo Price, Lucy Dacus, Megan Thee Stallion, John Legend, Rico Nasty, Solange, so so many more have hit the stage @ CUC. We hope you’ve had as much fun as we have and we want to keep the space open as a reminder of what Austin was and what it can one day be again maybe. Which is ummm… not run by influencers but run by artists.
“Anyways we get it if this is the end. But we’re not going to go down without letting y’all know. ‘Bout to post our Ko-Fi & GFM links to donate in the bio. Check back soon 
”
The Instagram post said the management was “a couple of months behind on rent from a very slow summer” and the landlord will be “locking our doors on Sept. 1st unless we can pay the back-rent before then.”
Fundraising goal smashed
Cheer Up Charlies is run by Maggie Lea and Tamara Hoover. In a post over the weekend, they revealed their staff had urged them to go public about their difficulties. And that it had paid off.
At the time of writing, the bar’s Ko-Fi fundraiser had raised 94% of the required $58,000. A separate GoFundMe had raised $18,000. After fees to each platform, they’ve still smashed their fundraising goal.
“After a meeting with our staff yesterday, we did what they encouraged us to do which was to try and let people know immediately that we needed to raise the funds in order to make it through this month,” they said on Instagram.
“With your help we were able to meet the necessary benchmark to be able to cover our back-rent!!!! Thank you so much for the outpouring of love, but especially for the sharing of amazing memories from our decade and a half in operation.
“Any extra that was donated is going to our payroll account as a cushion for staff pay. We’ll be posting screen-shots of all of that when the funds hit our accounts.
“So many in depth conversations have been started with this eye-opening incident; many many of our peers in the venue industry are struggling but are afraid to tell people about it or be vulnerable about it in the press. We can see why they choose not to share. We are excited to continue talks with new partnerships and connections to discuss sustainability, stability in the future for marginalized spaces, and how we can prevent this from happening again, not only for ourselves but for any other venue that needs help & resources right now.”
“Pretty overwhelming”
Hoover told the Austin Chronicle, “It’s pretty overwhelming [and] surprising to see everybody being so supportive. I’m feeling super lucky and grateful.”
Lea said that besides the essential cash, asking for help had also led to potential new partnerships.
“We have a 2009 model of running a venue,” she said. “That’s just not sustainable in Austin currently. Every single venue owner has multiple partnerships – either hospitality groups, real estate partnerships, [or] other investors. And Cheer Up Charlies has seriously been just Tamara and myself for 16 years – not to talk us down. I think we’ve done really well and the best we can. But nobody’s perfect, and we trip and trip and tumble a little. And we’re just trying to make sure that everyone [is] paid on time and paid a fair wage.”
Past and future
Cheer Up Charlies began life as a vegan food truck launched by Hoover in 2009. It became a busy stop-off for post-club customers. This led to her finding premises on East Sixth, which she developed with Lea, her romantic partner. They moved to their current location on Red River in 2014.
For the future, the women are looking at expanding the venue’s opening hours.
“My vision is daytime use, [a] comfortable space. We work so hard on the aesthetics, with the landscaping and the trees, and I think it’s a great little oasis to park yourself,” Hoover says. She hopes to tempt remote workers, among others.
“We want to get back to our values and our vision of the space,” Lea added. “It has been very, very difficult to do that with the financial struggle of getting back on our feet. You know, once you get in debt or have to pay back loans … one bad weekend can make or break it.”
GayCities has reached out to Lea and Hoover for further comment.
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