Dayna Frank is an American businesswoman who has served as president and CEO of First Avenue Productions, independently owned and operated concert venue and promoter, since 2009.
In her time with First Avenue Productions she has expanded the business from its original venue First Avenue & 7th Street Entry to include the Fine Line, the Turf Club, the Palace Theatre, the Fitzgerald Theater, and The Depot Tavern all located in Minneapolis - Saint Paul Minnesota.
Frank also serves as board president for the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) which she co-founded with Rev. Moose, Managing Partner at Marauder in New York City and Gary Witt, executive director of Pabst Theater Group in Milwaukee in the wake of COVID-19's devastating effect on the live entertainment industry.
Frank is on the board of trustees for the Walker Art Center, the chair of the board of directors for the Twin Cities Music Community Trust, was a 2018 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, and served as a board member for the Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
Early life and education
Frank was born in Golden Valley, Minnesota in May 1979. She grew up attending Temple Israel in Uptown Minneapolis.
Her father, Byron, was an accountant before retirement and worked as a business manager for First Avenue since its inception 1970 before eventually owning the company.
Frank graduated from Hopkins High School in 1997. She studied photography and earned her B.A. in Cultural Studies from New York University in 2001.
Career
Early career
In 2004 Frank moved to Los Angeles to begin work as an assistant at Creative Artists Agency moving to Watermark Productions and Paramount Vantage a film division of Paramount Pictures. In 2006 Frank began work with VH1 working in Scripted Series Development & Production overseeing projects like Single Ladies, Star Stories, Accetable.tv, I Hate My 30s, and Pedro. a television biopic on Pedro Zamora, from MTV's “The Real World San Francisco".
First Avenue Productions
In the year 2000 Byron Frank and a team of business associates bought the First Avenue building while the club was struggling against larger trends in the music industry, growing local competition, and corporate music promoters. On November 2, 2004 First Avenue's original owner, and Byron Frank's former business partner, Allen Fingerhut took First Avenue into bankruptcy leading to 130 employees being out of work and multiple scheduled concerts needing to be rescheduled. Following a legal battle, protests from local music fans, and attention to the situation from former Minneapolis Mayor and long time First Avenue concert attendee R.T. Rybak, the case was resolved (the judge presiding in the bankruptcy case noted, "I gather there is some urgency about this"), and the club was reopened by new partners including former First Avenue concert promoters, talent buyers, and general managers, Jack Meyers and Steve McClellan along with Byron Frank, with shows resuming after one week's closure.
In 2009 Byron Frank experienced a stroke leading him to call his two daughters and inform them that he intended to sell First Avenue to Live Nation or another deep-pocketed corporation if neither of them were willing to take over.
"The idea that the club could wind up in the hands of a company that's not responsible to Minneapolis/St. Paul and didn't inherently understand the beauty of this market ... was unfathomable," Dayna said in a 2014 interview.
In August 2014 First Avenue announced the purchase of the Turf Club in Saint Paul which dates back to 1940. Largely leaving the venue the same, the First Avenue team updated the speaker systems and renovated the bathrooms while keeping the core of the building as it was at the point of purchase. Former owner Tom Scanlon said “I had lots of people interested in buying the place, but First Avenue just made perfect sense. They know the place and the business very well. I'm confident the future of the Turf Club is absolutely safe in their hands.”
March 10, 2017 the Palace Theatre hosted the first concert with First Avenue Productions co-managing and co-operating with the City of Saint Paul. Frank and First Avenue Productions worked with the city leaders to oversee a $14.7 million renovation converting the building from a shuttered movie theater to a 2,800 capacity venue featuring contemporary music and events.