A Historic Melbourne Live Music Venue Is Set To Be Demolished

Historic Melbourne live music venue Festival Hall is set to be demolished to make way for a multi-million dollar apartment complex. 

As Herald Sun reports, Melbourne City Council has received a proposal to build two 16-storey towers at the site, believed to cost $65 million, which would include apartments, office spaces and retail stores. 

The venue was built in 1915 and has played host to the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, while names such as Liam Gallagher, Gang Of Youths, Patti Smith and Queens Of The Stone Age have also performed there in the last 12 months. 

Music guru Molly Meldrum has slammed the move.

"We can’t afford to lose any live music venues, but especially not one with the history and memories attached to Festival Hall," Meldrum said.

"So many great bands have played there and continue to play there. Personally I’d hate to see it go as it was the place I saw my first concert which was the Beatles — until I got kicked out."

However Ronnie Burns, frontman of Melbourne '60s outfit The Flies, suggested "it's probably time to move on".

"It is iconic and it did wonderful things and it’s got a lot of memories," he said.

"But I think you just have to move on and not be sad about it — I don’t like to see our history being torn down but in this case it’s a very old building…

"I'll say I’m for it and I hope a lot of people don’t mind me saying that but it served the population for many, many decades."