Festivals & Venues Update: May 5
CAMPAIGN TO MAKE BRISBANE’S LYCEUM AN ENTERTAINMENT VENUE
A battle has begun in Brisbane over the Lyceum Theatre, with Odyssey Entertainment starting a campaign to raise $25,000. Its GM Daniel Endicott says he wants to stop Hillsong Church from renting it. He says Brisbane needs a 800-capacity live music venue as well as a place to showcase comedy, film premieres, circus events, vaudeville, variety and fashion parades.
Odyssey has saving and managing several Brisbane performing arts venues. These include Pink Palace clubhouse (former Victoria Park Golf Clubhouse) which was refurbed with a $2 million restoration and now a community health facility). After an $8 million restoration the Old Museum Building still operates as a community arts centre. The Globe Theatre ($1m refurb) is now a music venue.
According to Endicott, an initial $5000 is needed to form a company, get basic insurance and pay for legal fees to sign a lease. Beyond that shareholders will be secured to raise capital to cover basic refurbishments, upgrades to electrical, air conditioning and plumbing, liquor license and council applications, and to help cover rent for the first year whilst waiting for the licence approval. More info via [email protected].
CAIRNS PITCHES FOR GROOVIN’ THE MOO
Will Groovin’ The Moo stage its future Queensland show in Cairns rather than Townsville, where it has been held since 2008? The Townsville show drew a sell-out 15,000 last weekend, with a number of punters journeying from Cairns.
According to the Cairns Post, the pitch is part of the Cairns Regional Council’s plan to convert Cannon Park racecourse into a multi-use venue that can draw 20,000 to events.
GTM promoters Cattleyard Promotions have obviously made no comment at this early stage.
Cairns’ problem is that Townsville has a greater volume and more diverse accommodation to cope with the influx of musical tourists – and 90% of its rooms were still booked out two weeks ahead.
ADELAIDE’S MARS BAR CLOSING AFTER 40 YEARS
One of Adelaide’s last dedicated LGBTI venues, Mars Bar, is closing on May 13. The bar, which showcased DJs and drag shows, was in operation for 40 years.
Manager Andrew ‘Madge’ Hobbs said that while it was time for him to “move on after 29 years”, the venue would re-open under new owners after a few weeks of renovations.
“New name, new direction, bigger and better than ever before. I hope you support the new owners as I’m sure they will endeavour to give you an amazing safe venue,” he wrote.
ZOO PROJECT RELOCATING
Sydney’s Zoo Project is closing operations at its current Kings Cross site “due to many reasons”, and looking for an alternative. This week’s events are postponed until then.
Management said a new professional team has been appointed to find a new home. “This transition may take some time. However we are confident in finding a new venue very soon.”
BAPTISM OF FIRE FOR TASMANIA VENUE
The five live music shows booked for new Hobart venue Goods Shed this week was reduced to just three. Brisbane’s Dead Letter Circus play tonight, Killing Heidi tomorrow and Ash Grunwald on Sunday afternoon.
Tash Sultana dropped out due to laryngitis while Tim Rogers had to make a dash overseas due to family issues.
DARWIN FESTIVAL PUTS SIX SHOWS ON SALE
The full lineup of the 80 events that Darwin Festival (Thursday August 10 – Sunday 27) will host will be unveiled on June 28. They will cover music, cabaret, comedy, theatre, visual arts and dance. The NT Government has reinstated its core funding of $1 million per year.
But in the meantime, tickets for six shows are already on sale, “as just a taste of what audiences can expect from the expansive program we have planned for 2017,” says Acting Artistic Director Felix Preval.
Three will take over Darwin Entertainment Centre. They are Opera Australia’s take on Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro with dazzling costumes and a clever set design, the acrobatics of Circa Goes Troppo, and Sydney Dance Company’s double bill Frame of Mind.
The Lighthouse in Festival Park has A Night at the Musicals with drag queens Jonny Woo and Le Gateau Chocolat, while New York comedian Penny Arcade presents her new show Longing Lasts Longer. City of Darwin’s Teddy Bears’ Picnic returns for a free family day at a new home at Darwin Cenotaph on The Esplanade.
NIGHTCLUB PROMOTERS JAILED
Melbourne R&B and trance nightclub promoters Raymond Lach and An Ken Vi, both 24, were jailed for 13 years’ jail, with a minimum of nine. They were part of an international drug syndicate that smuggled a quarter of a tonne of ice – worth $58.7 million – in containers labelled Udon Noodles.
FREEDOM TIME RETURNS FOR WINTER
The winter edition of EDM festival Freedom Time returns on June 3 with the biggest undercover dance floor yet, at Coburg Velodrome in Melbourne. The event, held under three big tops include DJs, art projections and installations.
BCEC TECHNOLOGY WINS AT AWARDS
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre’s In-House AV Services were judged the ‘best of the best’ at the Meetings & Events Australia (MEA) National Awards this week in Sydney. Audio Visual & Production Services ManagerMichael Duckworth accepted the award. This brings the Centre’s award tally to 165 national and major industry awards.
This brings the Centre’s award tally to 165 national and major industry awards.
ATTENDANCE RISES FOR SURFERS PARADISE LIVE
Final attendance figures for the third Surfers Paradise LIVE are not yet tallied. But organiser Surfers Paradise Alliance’s Chief Executive Mike Winlaw estimates it’ll over the 40,000 who attended last year.
Winlaw told the Gold Coast Bulletin that putting an extra $100,000 into the music acts budget was the key to the growth, allowing them to book acts like The Veronicas, Eskimo Joe, 1927, Pseudo Echo and Mental As Anything to the free event.
The same amount will go into next year’s bill, which SPA has announced will be held Friday May 4 – Sunday 6 May 2018.
The festival was set up to drive punters into Surfers to drive up trade for local businesses. This year’s masterstroke, says Winlaw, was to also have the Gold Coast Music Awards there. The awards will be held there next year too.
ADELAIDE CABARET DROPS 10TH ANNIVERSARY PROGRAM
40 acts over 15 venues will feature at the 10th Adelaide Cabaret Fringe (June 3—25). They cover every kind of musical style in a “program (that) is exciting, colorful and offers something for everyone,” said founder and Director Paul Boylon
Among the highlights are Mikelangelo’s one man Leonard Cohen tribute show, Martin Pascoe’sIndigenous cabaret show, gender transcendent jazz diva Mama Alto with pianist Miss Chief, the wickedly funny Dolly Diamond and Nicole O Rielley’s hate songs list in Publicly Private.
YOURS & OWLS SET TO DROP BILL
After last year’s extended capacity event sold out, Yours & Owls is returning September 30 – October 1 at Stuart Park in North Wollongong. They’re promising it will go up “a whole other level”, with the bill to drop on May 16.
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ADELAIDE’S BEER & BBQ SETS DATE
The Adelaide Beer & BBQ returns to the Adelaide Showground July 28—30, with 100 craft beers, 30 ciders, eight food stalls, international and local chefs and introducing the IPA Soundsystem” which will showcase 20 rotating taps of beer, some available in Australia for the first time.
Organisers Gareth Lewis and Aaron Sandow, who run Jack Ruby and Kings Head Hotel, have this year set up a new main stage on which Regurgitator, Ali Barter, Hockey Dad and West Thebarton Brothel Party will tread.
GEELONG STREET FESTIVAL
Community Music Victoria’s community music project Street Sounds, which features street bands in regional towns all over Victoria, culminates on Friday May 5 and Saturday 6 with The Street Sounds Festival program as part of Geelong After Dark.
Aside from each band playing a full set, there’ll be a parade, a Massed Play jam sessions and a series of workshops covering ukulele, marimba, percussion and horns.
ANU BAR FAREWELLMANAGES TO TRACK DOWN SOME WOMEN
Long time Canberra live music venue ANU Bar’s controversial farewell show will go ahead on June 17.
It caused a stink last month when Regurgitator and Slow Turismo pulled out in protest, following the booker’s blasé response to criticism over the all-male bill. That has been rectified with the addition of female-led bands Betty Alto and House of Strangers.
PERTH MAN GOES FREE OF ASSAULT CHARGES
A WA District Court jury found 20-year old Jamie David Foster not guilty of assaulting Wonderland site manager Aaron Gill. He was accused of kicking Gill in the head as scuffles broke out at the Langley Park site between security and fence jumpers.
Foster claimed he was merely a bystander, and forced to defend himself because Gill was “over-the-top aggressive” and left him fearing for his safety. Gill was hospitalised with severe facial injuries and needed insert metal plates into his head.
CRUISE CONTROLLED
Bravo, the seven-nights and eight-day South Pacific performing arts cruise on the luxurious Radiance of the Seas liner (October 31—November 7), will be headlined by international superstar Jose Carreras.
Taking along their seasickness pills are Dave Hobson, Marina Prior, soprano Taryn Fiebig, bass Jud Arthur, tenors Christopher Hillier and Martin Buckingham, mezzo Tania Ferris, The Voice’s jazz singer Emma Pask, Silvie Paladino, Julie Goodwin, virtuoso brothers Joseph and James Tawadros and The Choir of Hardknocks choirmaster Jonathon Welch.
Accompanying them is The Metropolitan Orchestra, conducted by maestro Guy Noble, while TV person Ray Martin is also on board conducting his In Conversation With Ray Martin segment.