Nighttime Economy Unit Aims to Make a Scene With “Weeknights Live” Series

Weeknights Live / Photograph courtesy of Creative Philadelphia

In Philly, it’s not hard to draw a crowd at the restaurants, bars and clubs on the weekends, but some of the other nights could use a boost.

That’s the idea behind the Weeknights Live program recently launched by the Department of Commerce’s Nighttime Economy Unit, which foots the bill for live music performances on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. According to the 2025 Philadelphia After Dark report, those are the city’s weakest nights economically. I asked department director Emeka Anusionwu if we could blame this on Gen Z somehow. He said no.

According to the 2025 Philly After Dark report, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the city’s weakest economically.

“We just want to give the earlier part of the week some light to shine, and also invigorate our corridors,” says Anusionwu. He’s referring to the East Passyunk Avenue and Baltimore Avenue commercial corridors, which will host live music on Mondays and Wednesdays respectively all year long. This is in addition to the city’s Tuesday night series at Center City hotels, which began in December.

“[After] the success of Tuesday Nights Live, we were like, oh, we need to bring this to more sections of the city. And we want to give more artists opportunities to get those wages and build their network,” he says. “So these are performance grants. They are strictly to drive traffic to these venues, and support the artists with paid performances.”

All told, the series calls for a reported $1 million investment in local music — one that aims to lead to increased business in certain neighborhoods and increase revenue for musicians.

“When you’re participating, you do have to submit a W-9 you do have to submit an ACH form,” says Anusionwu. He sees the program getting artists used to handling legal documents while growing their audience and earnings. “Later on, we’re also thinking about doing a financial literacy workshop for these artists.”

While the artists will need to apply for the program through the Nighttime Economy department, the individual bars, restaurants and hotels will pick the performers — not the city. (So far the participating venues have been somewhat lax in updating their social media and web sites with specific show info, but this is only week three.) All shows start at 6 p.m. and are free to attend.

Weeknights Live / Photograph courtesy of Creative Philadelphia

Here’s where and when to go:

Mondays: East Passyunk Avenue

• Pistolas del Sur, 1934 East Passyunk Avenue.
• Ray’s Happy Birthday Bar, 1200 East Passyunk Avenue.
• Stogie Joe’s Tavern, 1803 East Passyunk Avenue.
• Lucky 13 Pub, 1820 South 13th Street.

Tuesdays: Center City

• The Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, 1201 Market Street.
• The Notary Hotel Philadelphia: Autograph Collection, 21 North Juniper Street.
• Canopy by Hilton Philadelphia Center City Hotel, 1180 Ludlow Street.
• Aloft Philadelphia Downtown, 101 North Broad Street.
• Loews Philadelphia Hotel, 1200 Market Street.

Wednesdays: Baltimore Avenue

• Carbon Copy, 701 South 50th Street.
• Renata’s Kitchen, 3940 Baltimore Avenue.
• Dahlak, 4708 Baltimore Avenue.
• Booker’s Restaurant & Bar, 5021 Baltimore Avenue.