tabled the project<\/a>\u00a0until March 24, 2026 \u2014 its first meeting after the moratorium is set to expire.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe new license and fee on tickets do not apply to city-owned venues. Other than the proposed Live Nation venue, affected facilities would include Cross Insurance Arena and Thompson\u2019s Point.<\/p>\n
Venues with a capacity of 2,000 to 2,499 will provide 1% of base ticket sales to the fund, while venues between 2,500 and 2,999 will provide 1.5%, and venues with a capacity of 3,000 or more will contribute 2% of sales.<\/p>\n
The percentage contributed to the fund applies to the base ticket price, before taxes and third-party service fees are added.<\/p>\n
Portland resident Martin Lodish asked the council to delay the vote, noting \u201cLive Nation\u2019s not here,\u201d and it would impact venues already in the city, such as Thompson\u2019s Point and Cross Insurance Arena.<\/p>\n
Ryan Vangel, president of Live Nation New England, took to the podium to highlight the company\u2019s support of local arts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we all want to raise money for these organizations that need it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>The amendment to the city\u2019s code takes effect Feb. 4, but it will take time to impact existing venues. <\/p>\nAccording to the amendment, existing venues will not have to enter into the new agreement until \u201cthe second termination\u201d of their annual license after the enactment date. For example, a venue whose current license ends this May will not need to sign on to the agreement and begin contributing to the fund until their next license renewal in May 2027.<\/p>\n
FIREFIGHTERS RECOGNIZED<\/h2>\n
Gov. Janet Mills appeared at Portland\u2019s City Council meeting on Monday to honor the Portland Fire Department and neighboring agencies that responded to the blaze on Custom House Wharf last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cBe it resolved,\u201d Mills read aloud, \u201cthe governor of the state of Maine hereby recognizes the Portland Fire Department and its mutual aid partners for their valiant efforts to extinguish the fire on Custom House Wharf and for their dedication to serving Portland residents and the entire state of Maine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Mark Dion followed with a similar decree, honoring the firefighters\u2019 heroism the night of Dec. 26.<\/p>\n
Fire Chief Chad Johnston thanked the lawmakers, but also highlighted the response of the community they serve.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re overwhelmed by the amount of thanks we\u2019ve received,\u201d Johnston said. \u201c(It\u2019s) really humbled us and made us realize it\u2019s truly not about the fire department, it\u2019s not about just the waterfront, it\u2019s that our community has the ability to pull together when they\u2019re in need.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.pressherald.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rendering of the Portland Music Hall, a venue proposed in the heart of Portland by Mile Marker Investments and Live Nation. (Image by Leonardo Ruben Merlos) PORTLAND \u2014 Large entertainment venues in Maine\u2019s largest city will be required to contribute a portion of every ticket sold to a trust fund to benefit the local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2223680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2223679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Portland-City-Council-OKs-entertainment-venue-fee-born-out-of.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2223679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2223679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2223679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2223681,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2223679\/revisions\/2223681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2223680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2223679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2223679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2223679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}