<p>Nicole Astra: Welcome to Talking Cities, Aurora I'm Nicole Astra. And I am backstage in the green room at the Venue, one of Aurora's premier venues, particularly for the blues music. We're going to sit down today with Melissa Mercado, their executive director, and get the story behind the Venue.<br /><br />Nicole Astra: So I guess let's just start with how this all started. I mean, you're three years old, right, maybe in this space?<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: We opened June 2019. Yes.<br /><br />Nicole Astra: Okay. But the real story goes way back. Take me all the way back.<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: Oh gosh. It started out when the Blues on the Fox started out, almost 25 years ago. Grassroots festival that got too big for its britches on the street-<br /><br />Nicole Astra: Right.<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: ... and then was kind of taken over by the Paramount, and eventually moved off the streets into various locations, and finally found a home at River Edge Park. And during all of those years, this core group of people that were on the Blues on the Fox Society and the Blues on the Fox Committee, had remained steadfast friends and still was contributing to the Blues on the Fox, but our role had morphed over the years.<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: And because we had such deep and long lasting friendships and also we're really into the blues music, we were like, "What more can we do? What can we do to support this enterprise?" And we decided to form our own 501C3 and doing smaller things during the month. It started out during the month of June, like having a blues month and doing workshops with children and-<br /><br />Nicole Astra: And you were producing at that point.<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: Yes.<br /><br />Nicole Astra: Yeah.<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: Exactly. <br /><br />Nicole Astra: And bringing more culture into the city, but back then, did you have your eye on really your own venue?<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: It was always something that was in the back of our mind, as it became cost-prohibitive to rent spaces to do the things that we wanted to do. And it was just kind of an off-the-cuff thing. "Oh, well, wouldn't it be fun to take music into the schools and get a bus." Or, "Wouldn't it be great if we had a space where we could be a community hub for musicians." And then it's like, "Well, why can't we? Why not?" We had collectively, the knowledge to be able to do it.<br /><br />Nicole Astra: Yeah.<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: And the contacts with musicians and people in the city and stuff. And when this particular building is owned by the city, and it was actually slated for demolition to fill in a parking lot, the way that song goes. And we said, "No, no, no, no, no. Don't tear that thing down."<br /><br />Nicole Astra: Right<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: "There's a lot of history in it. What if we did this?" We approached the city. We made a proposal to them and we worked on it for several months and asked them to give us part of the budget it would've cost to tear down the building. And we would make it into something that would make Aurora proud, bring music down here. There's no duplication of efforts. We're not in competition with anybody. This is a music-<br /><br />Nicole Astra: It's more opportunity. Yeah.<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: Exactly. Bringing people from outside into our city. A lot of us that were on the original committee were heavily invested in the arts already. We had started the Aurora Art Walk, which later morphed into like First Fridays, a long evolution there. <br /><br />Nicole Astra: So these were grassroots from years ago. And all of these efforts to preserve art and culture in our community-<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: Right.<br /><br />Nicole Astra: .. have snowballed into these beautiful things that our community-<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: Yes.<br /><br />Nicole Astra: ... enjoys all the time now, the staple.<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: I, myself, I'm a lifelong Auroran. <br /><br />Nicole Astra: Yeah.<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: I was born here and went to school here at East Aurora, Tomcats, whoo, as are several of our board members. And I had worked in the corporate world for a while, but made a decision that I wanted to come back and give back to the community where I was raised. And it was at a tipping point. And I think we are still there, and it's really nice after having worked for probably 15 years down here to see some of these things that were just twinkles in our eye.<br /><br />Nicole Astra: Right. Gaining traction.<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: Back then, gaining traction-<br /><br />Nicole Astra: Yes.<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: ... and coming to fruition. So, for me, it's the collaboration with the city, with the community.<br /><br />Nicole Astra: Melissa Mercado, I'm telling you, one of the hardest working ladies in show business. <br /><br />Melissa Mercado: Oh, thank you.<br /><br />Nicole Astra: Yeah. And you have been since I've known you. Yeah. Yeah.<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: I know, we go back aways, don't we?<br /><br />Nicole Astra: You've got a fabulous team behind you. But again-<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: I do.<br /><br />Nicole Astra: ... we really appreciate your time. <br /><br />Melissa Mercado: Thank you.<br /><br />Nicole Astra: Thanks for what you're doing in our city, but also thanks for sitting down with Talking Cities, Aurora.<br /><br />Melissa Mercado: Sure thing.</p>