Brisbane’s The Zoo Is Closing

The Zoo, a beacon for the live music scene in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley for more than 30 years, is closing its doors.

The “financial reality of keeping music venues afloat in 2024 is all too stark,” reads a statement from The Zoo’s team, this despite the venue posting its highest ticket sales in its 32-year history last year. That box office boom “was still not enough to combat rising operational costs, and decreasing returns.”

The 400-capacity Zoo will cease trading on July 8, and its sister venue Stranded will also call time next Monday, May 6.

As a music venue, the statement continues, “we try our best to keep venue hire costs as low as possible for artists and promoters, which means that the financial risks are on the venue, and we depend on bar sales for profit. The cost of supplying alcohol is rising, and bar sales are going down, likely due to a mix of lifestyle changes and cost of living stress for our patrons.”

Venue operators admit The Zoo has been running at a loss for over three years, during which time its leadership team has undergone several changes.

“Despite exploring every avenue available to us, we could not secure the level of support needed to surmount the continued financial strain. We have no choice but to call last drinks for both of our beloved music venues.”

The upstairs space at 711 Ann St The Zoo opened its doors for the first time on Dec. 11, 1992 in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, and has gone on to host performances from the biggest stars at the edgier-end of contemporary music, from The Pixies to Silverchair, The Black Keys, Lorde, Ben Harper, The Church, Nick Cave and many more.

“This is personal for me,” said Brian “Smash” Chladil, co-founder of Brisbane-based independent ticketing specialist Oztix, as he presented the manager of the year award at the 2024 AAM Awards today (May 1) at Sydney’s Crowbar. “The Zoo was the very first client for Oztix, 20-and-a-half years ago. It’s been a big part of my world. I think I’ve seen more bands at the Zoo than all the bands put together. It’s very sad. And it’s important that we all and sort this mess out.”

During the recent 2024 Queensland Music Awards, John “JC” Collins,” director of the nearby Fortitude Music Hall, made an impassioned plea for support for live music venues, struggling from those brutal business conditions. “After COVID 19, we thought the world would open up. It did for TayTay,” Collins said. “It’s really important that we understand that the costs are up 40% and the ticket sales are down 60%. Do the maths on that.”

It’s a sad end for an icon, whose history is as colourful as many of the performers who filed through.

Back in its early days, punters at The Zoo were provided with a light meal, rolled into the price of entry.

After surviving the beatdown that was the pandemic, and trialing socially distanced shows, The Zoo bounded back and celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2022 with a 30-day curated programme.

Now, it’s recognised as one of Australia’s longest-running live music venues, and a cornerstone to the Valley entertainment precinct.

Read the full statement below.

As passionate music fans and proud members of the community, it’s impossibly hard to share the news that after nearly 32 years of live music, The Zoo will be closing its doors on July 8th 

Sadly, the financial reality of keeping music venues afloat in 2024 is all too stark. The Zoo reached its highest ticket sales in its 32-year history last year, yet this was still not enough to combat rising operational costs, and decreasing returns.

As a music venue, we try our best to keep venue hire costs as low as possible for artists and promoters, which means that the financial risks are on the venue, and we depend on bar sales for profit. The cost of supplying alcohol is rising, and bar sales are going down, likely due to a mix of lifestyle changes and cost of living stress for our patrons.

The hard truth is that we’ve been running at a loss for over 3 years. Despite exploring every avenue available to us, we could not secure the level of support needed to surmount the continued financial strain. We have no choice but to call last drinks for both of our beloved music venues.

Our sister venue Stranded will also be wrapping up, ceasing trade on Monday May 6th…

To our loyal punters and past performers, we thank you for the great times we’ve shared; the decades of dancing, singing and moshing. The kindness of our community of music lovers is a gift The Zoo team has cherished.

We hope you’ll continue to support local live music and keep the scene alive in Brisbane and nationwide.

We encourage you to advocate for live music, to implore our government and music bodies to do everything they can to prevent more venues from closing their doors due to the industry-wide financial pressure that is decimating venues across the country.

We hope you’ll join us for one last dance over the next few months. We want to make the last shows very special and will be looking to add extra shows while we can!

If you have purchased tickets to shows that are outside the closure dates, we’ll be in contact soon.