But for those in the entertainment industry, the national cabinet's March decision to ban indoor gatherings of more than 100 people saw revenue dashed overnight.

While JobKeeper's introduction in April served to keep some businesses afloat, many creatives on casual incomes missed out.

In June, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a $250 million package to stimulate the arts and entertainment industry, a sector Mr Morrison said was one of the first impacted by COVID-19.

His prediction was that it would be one of the last to come out of hibernation when social-distancing restrictions eased.

JobMaker will be rolled out to support the country's $112 billion creative economy and the more than 600,000 Australians it employs.

However, just six organisations in the ACT will be eligible for a share in the grant and loans program.

Of the package, $35 million put aside for theatre, dance, circus and music groups will be accessible to a handful of Canberra businesses which already receive annual federal funding.

Live In Ya Lounge is a post-pandemic venture which sprung up as a way to keep ACT musicians and performance crews working.

Just 10 days after promoters and festival organisers started issuing the first cancellation apologies in March, a Canberra band stood on stage to perform live for the cameras.

Streamed to a locked-down audience, Hands Like Houses clocked up more than 80,000 views in the short time the show was free to watch online.

On opening night, 18 staff worked behind the scenes to emulate the light, sound and feel of a proper concert.

Its organiser, Rob Cartwright, came up with the concept as a way to keep the 25 members of his audio-visual events team busy.

The idea was to eventually monetise the Live In Ya Lounge shows through sponsorship and ticketing.

After a month of seeking approval for a COVID-19 safe second show, Live in Ya Lounge returned to a rented venue at Exhibition Park.

In May, Music ACT director Daniel Ballantyne expressed concerns to the pandemic response select committee that organisers of perhaps the largest cultural initiative occurring in the ACT were paying full commercial rates for the use of EPIC.

The committee responded by making "reduced rent for Live In Ya Lounge" one of its 21 interim report recommendations.

A government spokesperson said the territory has committed more than $5 million in economic stimulus to support Canberra's creatives through the COVID-19 pandemic, including approximately $70,000 in discounts to Live In Ya Lounge.

According to the spokesperson, 66 Canberra artists received grants of up to $60,000, licencees at arts facilities shared more than $300,000, nine organisations shared in $1.07 million, the Cultural Facilities Corporation received $2.5 million and Canberra street artists received a share in about $500,000.

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Mr Ballantyne said the Basement's heavy metal dinners, Smith's Alternative reopening and Transit Bar moving to a new facility were examples of the creativity of the music industry in post-pandemic Canberra.

He said when you looked at the size, the scope and the breadth of the music industry, the federal government grants had been abysmally small.

"Locally, the ACT government's got a very comprehensive set of supports for small business generally, but a lot of those businesses are allowed to continue trading at a level that live music venues cannot," he said.

"You're talking about four people to the metre and the social distancing requirement is one person to four meters - how you come up with a workable capacity is near impossible."

Mr Ballantyne said he hoped COVID-19 could provide a pathway to the development of a music industry in the territory as well supported as those in other states.

"The music industry from the point of view of Music ACT - which is live music - was already in trouble prior to the outbreak," he said.

"The ACT has some of the most antiquated planning and sound regulation when it comes to enabling restaurants, nightclubs and live music venues and night-time activity."

Mr Ballantyne said the consequence of that was that when Geocon's Garema Place hotel goes up, residents will be within their rights to complain about the Multicultural Festival, potentially shutting it down.

"There is a tension in this town around development and the right to live in a place that's interesting," he said.

Mr Cartwright said Live In Ya Lounge now had so many bands applying to perform, they had two on stage every Friday and Saturday night.

He said while the shows were yet to bring in any financial benefit, last weekend the Spinning Plates and Danny Pratt performed for the first actual audience.

"If I'm optimistic I like to think we'll survive, but the reality is we've lost 80 per cent of our work and no one seems to care," Mr Cartwright said.

"Something would have to change dramatically to prevent us going bankrupt."