The Fox is Free

_{By Zach Collier}

It’s official: Velour Live Music Gallery is here to stay. After 16 years in operation, the Provo music scene’s most iconic venue is debt free, and 100% owned by venue founder Corey Fox.

Velour has provided a platform and an audience for thousands of aspiring bands over the last two decades, many of whom have become chart toppers and household names. Still, the journey has largely been a labor of love.

In a community a half hour south from the fabled Silicon Slopes, Fox would not be considered a wealthy man. It’s hard to make it in the music business to begin with, and a battle with kidney failure coupled with financial stresses brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic would have brought lesser entrepreneurs to their knees. But Fox is revered and respected at home and abroad as a patron of the arts.

He’s had a hand in significant Utah music festivals like Provo’s Rooftop Concert Series, Fork Fest, and Buzzards & Bees. In addition to his work as a concert promoter and event organizer, he has been the art director for significant music videos. With Matt Eastin, he co-directed Imagine Dragons’ “On Top of the World” music video.

On Thursday, May 12, some of the good Fox sent out into the world over the last 16 years finally found its way back home. Dan Reynolds, lead singer of Imagine Dragons, and Nick Whiting, region president for Zions Bank, announced during a Sweet 16 Anniversary Show at Velour that the venue’s mortgage was paid in full. The mortgage was paid off by the community: Imagine Dragons, June Audio, and countless others worked together over the course of 2021 to raise funds to sustain Velour. Zions Bank offered to match the fundraising efforts up to $50,000.

Corey Fox has set a high standard for the Provo music community. He has demonstrated the amount of sacrifice it requires to build something important. We’re lucky to have a more stable Velour around for the foreseeable future, and I hope others in the music scene can step up and offer their gifts and sacrifice for the greater good.

While we still have mountains ahead of us yet to climb, today we can all rejoice in the fact that the Fox is free.

Velour is closed tonight for a private event, but will return next week with a full slate of concerts including acts like Homephone, Michael Barrow & The Tourists, Rally, Las Vegas’ Savannah Sgro, Down River, Komas, and more. In the meantime, enjoy “Dustland” by The Killers and Bruce Springsteen – shot at Velour Live Music Gallery – below.