Thousands to attend anti-lockouts rally in Sydney

While emergency service workers and some criminologistshave backed Sydney’s lockout laws, revealing crime rates have dropped, groups like music industry initiative Unlock Sydney and anti-lockout activists Keep Sydney Open are fighting to save Sydney’s night time economy.

Perhaps the latest and grandest action taken by the Keep Sydney Open movement is a rally set to take place on Sunday, with support from Sydney bands The Preatures, Art vs Science and Royal Headache, along with Dave Faulkner from iconic Australian band Hoodoo Gurus.

Among those speaking at the rally will be The Preatures’ frontwoman Isabella Manfredi, Dave Faulkner, Political Editor of Crikey and author Bernard Keane and the initiative’s own Tyson Koh, who is the rally’s MC. More speakers will be announced during the week.

Royal Headache and Art vs Science will perform at the rally with the latter expected to sing their anti-lockout songYou Got To Stop.

The rally will kick off atBelmore Parkin Central at12:30pm before making its way into the CBD. At 1pm a mock-funeral will be held at soon-to-close venueBar Century for all the closed venues, small businesses and jobs lost since the lockouts.

Keep Sydney Open has over 32,600 ‘likes’ on Facebook and more than 9,600 have already RSVP’d to the rally on Facebook. Its petition against the laws has more than 44,000 signatures. Sign the petition here.

Keep Sydney Open hopes the rally will trigger the following changes:

– Lockout exemptions for licensed premises that are predominantly live music venues
– An end to the new licence freeze for predominantly live music venues and small bars
– The lifting of restrictions on retail hours
– Late-night public transport, like in Melbourne
– The introduction of a Night Mayor, like in Amsterdam and Berlin
– An invitation from government to discuss next steps in partnership with those whose livelihoods depend on the music and cultural industries thriving in Sydney
– Police to work with not against the responsible venues who provide safe nights out in a global city

Keep Sydney Open hopes to achieve a similar outcome to an anti-lockouts rally staged in Melbourne in 2010 by live music advocacy movement SLAM (Save Live Australia’s Music). The estimated 17,000 attendees are thought to have been instrumental in the removal of the Melbourne lockout laws.

In 2015 two rallies were held in Sydney to protest the lockouts.Approximately 3,000 people marched through Kings Cross last September in a rally organised by global, creative activist group Reclaim The Streets; the second rally in December saw another 2,000people take part. Reclaim The Streets have organised another protest for March 19. More than 3,000 have already RSVP’d on the Facebook eventpage. It’s slated to be a festival with organisers saying it will feature “Techno, Drum n’ Bass, Psytrance, Regge, Hardcore, Deep House, Hip Hop, Band Stage and U.K. Garage/Grime across 11 stages.”

Last week the public en mass including artists Basenji, Flight Facilities and Nina Las Vegas called out NSW Premier Mike Baird over an ill-conceived Facebook post on the Sydney lockouts. Last Monday Baird said alcohol related assaults had decreased by 42.2% in the CBD since the lockout laws’ introduction and insinuated the laws’ backlash has become a “growing hysteria”.

“There has been a growing hysteria this week about nightlife in Sydney,” Baird said on Facebook. “The main complaints seem to be that you can’t drink till dawn any more and you can’t impulse-buy a bottle of white after 10pm. I understand that this presents an inconvenience. Some say this makes us an international embarrassment.”

The post was shared more than 2,600 times and received over 16,600 comments, mostly unfavourable. Those commenting questioned why the lockout zone excluded the Star City casino and a small number of small pokie machine venues, which could continue trading if they stopped serving alcohol. Thus, Baird earned the title of ‘Casino Mike’.

Meme posted to Casino Mike Facebookaccount

Flight Facilities said in their letter to Baird: “How do we know that the next Flight Facilities, Nina Las Vegas, Whatsonot, Alison Wonderland or Yolanda Be Cool aren’t choking on the creative stranglehold these laws have created? Instead, we’re being put in nappies and tucked into bed by a bunch of expired minds.”

Basenji said:“It is nothing short of tragic that when the clock strikes 1:30am it is now easier to feed coins into a pokie machine than it is to appreciate the work of an entertainer contributing to our cultural life.”

Note the high density crime rate now apparent in Pyrmont, where Star City is situated

Redfern Bar and Arcadia Liquors are among the venues who have added Baird to their ‘lockout list’ of people who aren’t welcome through their doors. The list also includes former Premier Barry O’Farrell, who was acting Premier when the laws were introduced two years ago following two instances of alcohol-fuelled violence.

Keep Sydney Open has said it held meetings with the organisers behind the three events also happening in Sydney on Sunday: Mardi Gras Fair Day in Victoria Park, Astral People’s Summer Dance at National Art School and the Future Classic x Museum of Contemporary Art event. “They are all 100% behind this rally,” said Keep Sydney Open.

Keep Sydney Open supporter Tina Arena

Top Image: The first Reclaim The Streets protest in Kings Cross
Credit:Joachim Pforr