Audrey Fix Schaefer Named VenuesNow 2026 All-Star Honoree

Audrey Fix Schaefer Communications Director, I.M.P. President of the Board, NIVA

FAVORITE VENUE (NOT YOUR OWN) “The Ellis Theater in Philadelphia, Mississippi. It’s owned by one of my favorite artists, Marty Stuart, and run by one of my favorite humans of all time, Arden Barnett.”

As board president of the National Independent Venue Association, Audrey Fix Schaefer — whose day job is as Director of Communications for beloved Washington, D.C.-area venue operator and promoter I.M.P. — was able to see the group’s efforts bear fruit, as a handful of states began passing ticketing reform, some of which included resale and fee caps, even as the logjammed morass of the federal government has frustrated long-time efforts to get a nationwide reform through Congress.

That the reform package passed closest to home for Schaefer — D.C.’s council unanimously passed the RESALE Act in July, which will put a 10% resale cap on tickets — was particularly special. She called it “the best consumer protection legislation I’ve seen in the nation.”

“The support was fulsome among fans, artists and independent music venues of all sizes … We all want to make sure fans can attend as many shows as possible — and at the price the artists set — not what those gouging want to vacuum out of the market,” she says. “So, the biggest challenge, which I thought of as an urgent and ongoing opportunity, was to continually educate councilmembers about how their constituents are being harmed by opportunistic scalpers and the mega platforms that support them and profit off of them. The amount these companies and the fake consumer groups they sponsor spent on lobbying — and wildly misleading advertising and telemarketing — was certainly a challenge, because they have billions of dollars on the line and will spend many millions on their propaganda campaign. We developed a coalition that was for the RESALE Act and worked together to set the record straight.”

But the effort was worth it, not just because NIVA and its partners got a win, but because, as Schaefer says, the live experience is priceless.

“Some fans are forgoing vacations because of high prices, but then treat themselves to a show or two as a way to make the most of their staycation,” she says.

VenuesNow 2026 All-Star Hub

_Originally reported by [Pollstar](https://news.pollstar.com/2026/09/21/venuesnow-2026-all-star-honoree-audrey-fix-schaefer/)._