Although the Georgia Theatre fire has been talked and written about ad nauseam, the pain Athens has suffered has not subsided. Once the college town’s largest and most famous music venue, the Theatre will now remain vacant until 2011.

Thankfully, the generous and hopeful spirit of the Classic City has remained intact in the six months since the tragic incident. Droves of local benefits have been staged for the sole purpose of donating money to help revive the fallen venue.

“The [burning of] the Theatre totally changed our dynamic,” said local musician Timi Conley, whose bands Kite to the Moon and Abbey Road Live! have donated money to the Theatre through their shows. “Right when [the fire] happened, there was such an urgency to get it rebuilt.”

Profits were slim at first, but following an alliance with the Georgia Trust, various groups and music-lovers began organizing official fundraisers. The Phoenix Project, a group created to raise money for the Theatre’s cause, brought in over $3,000.

“[The fire] quickly united the music front,” guitarist Adam Payne said.

“People were crawling out of the woodwork, being like, ‘I got my boots and a shovel, let’s get this thing cleaned up!’”

According to Georgia Theatre owner Wilmot Greene, the local community has so far raised around $20,000 to help rebuild the Theatre.

Additionally, large and small local venues alike have hosted benefit shows for the Georgia Theatre and accommodated artists that typically perform there.

The 40 Watt hosted Tea Leaf Green, the Classic Center hosted moe. and Bela Fleck, and New Earth served as a haven for several smaller acts of similar genres.

One powerful instance of Music Matters’ charity came at the Ballers’ Ball at Athens Arena in September featuring Pretty Lights.

During Pretty Lights’ set, an announcement was made before the massive crowd that all of the money netted from that event would be donated to the Georgia Theatre.

Even some of the major national musical groups have done their part to help. The Zac Brown Band and Kid Rock took support for the Georgia Theatre one step further, hosting a highly-publicized benefit show beyond the confines of Athens at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta that single-handidly raised $75,000.

Athens artist Jennifer Schildknecht even added a touch of the personal to the distressing event and extended her support as a representative of the art community’s derise to help rebuild the Theatre.

“Athens is an artsy town, and I kept wondering where the artists were and why they hadn’t jumped in to help,” she said.

This prompted her to organize the creation of a patchwork quilt made from any material donated by local residents.