With Live Music Paused, Another Cherished New Orleans Venue Is for Sale

Popular Freret Street music venue and bar Gasa Gasa is for sale, Gambit’s Jake Clapp reported Thursday. It is the latest New Orleans music venue to close during the COVID-19 pandemic, as proprietors face an increasingly distant end to the ban on live music indoors.

Co-owner Dane Peterson told Clapp that after trying to “hold on” while closed throughout the shutdown, owners decided to put Gasa Gasa up for sale when it became clear there was no timeline for the reopening of music venues. Peterson said that while they’ve just begun the process of trying to sell, he hopes to see new owners continue the venue.

Gasa Gasa opened in 2013 on a stretch of the Freret Street corridor that was rezoned as an arts district in 2008 in a post-Hurricane Katrina revival effort. It was appropriately art-centric, hosting pop-up art shows and film screenings, as well as occasional food pop-ups and food trucks. The venue was known for an eclectic lineup of independent artists and bands, both national and local.

Gasa Gasa is the second important music venue in New Orleans to close permanently since the start of the coronavirus shutdown; 20-year Frenchmen Street pillar D.B.A was placed on sale by owners in April. The future is also apparently uncertain for Tipitina’s, one of the city’s most famous venues, bought two years ago by beloved New Orleans band Galactic. The band recently told NOLA.com that “by September/October, we’re really going to be in a tough spot.”

To stay up to date with the important restaurant, bar, and cafe closures in New Orleans, see Eater’s running roundup.

Eater is tracking the impact of the novel coronavirus on the city’s restaurant industry. Have a story to share? Reach out at nola@eater.com.

• Gasa Gasa, a New Orleans music venue on Freret Street, to be sold [GAMBIT]
• A Longtime Pillar of New Orleans’s Live Music Scene Is for Sale [ENOLA]
• The future of Tipitina’s is uncertain: By fall, ‘we’re going to be in a really tough spot’ [NOLA.COM]
• The Latest New Orleans Restaurant and Bar Closings of 2020 [ENOLA]