Brisbane’s always been home to the biggest entertainment precinct in the country, with Fortitude Valley boasting a thread of shiny jewels that snakes around the streets of Ann, Wickham, and Brunswick.
But sometimes the best clubs are off the beaten path.
Take a smoke break on the corner of Crowbar and you’ll find yourself discovering Winn Lane and the spunky techno-glittered bar they call QUIVR, although by this time in the city’s bustling nightlife scene, you’d be late to the party.
Come six years after opening, and the party is about to get bigger. The laneway venue has further cemented its keep as part of the Valley’s music and nightlife scene, announcing the opening of sister space The Sound Room in the brick and mortar next door, previously occupied by music store Tym’s Guitars.
QUIVR co-founder Hollee Hibberson spoke with The Music about the unfolding project. While night time is for serving drinks, daytime lately has been dedicated to knocking out walls and putting up shelves, among other things.
“It's quite nice having a bar as an office,” she admits, “We've got this orange room, which has become quite iconic for the current bar. We call it the womb room, and it's where we do all our admin.”
Alongside her on the speakerphone is booking manager Ruby McCabe, her second-in-command. Meanwhile, co-founder, and Hollee’s life partner Dara Sol, is out-of-office looking after their sick kid, staying afloat in the juggling act of parenting and running a business.
Do-It-Yourself
While the demolition dust has only been permeating for the past few weeks, Hollee discloses that the realisation of QUIVR’s soon-to-be extension took a lot longer, and while DIY is their way of functioning, the turnaround is nothing short of remarkable.
“It's been kind of six-to-twelve months of planning in 2D, us learning some free architectural software, and then we started building," Hollee says. "The original QUIVR bar… we built that DIY as well, Dara and myself, and that took us six months. This one – which is probably three times the size – is taking us six weeks.”
“We've had tradies for the bits that we physically didn't have the tools for or if they were just guns out, so we've definitely had some builders in, sparkies, plumbers, all the main players. It was a week-and-a-half for the builders, and the rest was us and our team. We're doing the tiling, we're doing the woodwork, we're doing the upholstery, we're doing the bar design. We've been working on a DIY sound system design with a friend for four months.”
The Sound Room
So, are The Sound Room and QUIVR the same? Are they two distinct venues? Well, yes and yes.
“If you come down our hallway, there's an entry into the Sound Room," Hollee points out. "Everything's still called QUIVR, the Sound Room is another additional room (of QUIVR), so you can access through and flow through from both spaces, or we also have the ability now of sectioning everything off.
"There's a street entrance from Winn Street and we can make it a completely ticketed space, like its own function space.”
When it’s fully decked out, the venue will average a capacity of 170 people, or make that closer to 270 if you include the 100-capacity laneway and original bar area.
It’s no easy feat to more than double what the space was previously capable of, and in no more than six weeks, but Hollee and Ruby both agree that the demand is well and truly there, and while Ruby’s inbox of event requests remains “chonky” as she puts it, the venue will no longer have to turn away the plethora of acts that simply can’t be accommodated due to the current restraints.
“I mean, the bigger capacity, the ticketing opportunity now," Hollee begins, "it's just just opportunities we didn't have before of the type of calibre artists that we want and plus with now an incredible backline and sound system.
"It's the perfect recipe.”
Revive Live
“Big things coming,” Hollee remarks. If QUIVR could earn a dollar for every time that favourite colloquial phrase was used in the music industry, they’d be able to bankroll their whole expansion.
Running a live music venue in 2026 ain’t cheap, but thanks to the Australian Government’s live music initiative Revive Live, QUIVR received the funding necessary to birth the Sound Room and inject more music into Brisbane.
“It was our first grant that we ever applied for, and purely out of a capacity thing," Hollee explains. "As owner-operators with a venue that does many things. Not just a venue, but a DJ agency and DJ school and a bunch of things.
"I think the proof points were there because we'd been doing live music in the laneway for a number of years anyway. We'd always promoted local and interstate talent. The challenge for us was that it was always coming out of bar sales and because of the limit of the size of the laneway, we were always captured to 100 people, so we could never really, you know, do anything with ticket sales.”
Ruby adds to that the fact that, while QUIVR operates predominantly at night, they’ve still got business-owner neighbours practically on their front doorstep that they have to be cautious of, and Hollee adds the pitfall of a predominantly outside space when it comes to rain.
They ended up being one of ten grant applicants awarded, alongside the likes of The Tivoli and Woodford Folk Festival.
QUIVR’s Crowd
All types of people are welcome to skip, hop, and hopefully not stumble, down Winn St to witness those carving it up in the infamous livestreamed DJ booth, order a Yuzu cocktail in the OG bar before either getting on the impromptu disco-ball clad dancefloor in the laneway, or soaking up the ambiance of the inside rooms before raising their cortisol over a game of Jenga.
As for the Sound Room area, expect to find wine offerings and small tapas-style plates of food, and while the Laneway outside will still be bouncing with its noticeably funky custom speakers, The Sound Room promises to keep the same reputation when it comes to sound quality.
“We've been quite particular with the type of sound because of the sound system build and the type of space we're wanting to create,” Hollee says, speaking of the all-custom speaker system, amplification backline, and kitted DJ booth.
“Ethan Greaves, who we've been working with to build the sound system, is what we’re calling our sound architect. Dar and I have been working with him for the design. He's a sound engineer, so he's our guy that's also going to be running it. It'll be all in-house sound for sure.”
But don’t expect any old song to be played over those sweet, sweet speakers. QUIVR didn’t spend the past six years cultivating a hugely supportive DJ-based culture in a previous one-size-fits-all Brisbane music scene for nothing.
“It's definitely a different type of music environment. Different in the sense of, you know, obviously, we’re heavily DJ focused, but the live music component is really going to be less uh, about… do people still call it ‘rock’?” Ruby laughs at Hollee’s remark.
“We’re more alternative in the, like, queer spaces, world music, jazz. But we’re less of a band room.”
“Not saying that we won't have artists with bands, but it's going to be quite considered,” Ruby adds.
From Bedroom DJ To Scene-Setter
They’re here, they’re queer, and they’re DJ pioneers, is how you could say the QUIVR crowd tends to operate, although Hollee admits it’s not easy keeping the lights on for those avid about the genre.
"We live week to week with this business, it's not profitable at all," Hollee admits. "We've grown at the rate the community has wanted, only ever adding what the community needed."
While, sure, they’re at the epicenter of Fortitude Valley’s entertainment precinct, it’s the team’s ability to lean into curiosity that keeps them chugging away.
"We noticed less non-males using the space, so we opened the school to teach more diverse people. That led into laneway parties, and once those got busy, we thought, maybe we should open a bar. It became about giving DJs and younger promoters a chance to explore sound, day or night," Hollee says.
Now, with the team and running costs having grown alongside the venue, the Sound Room will bring in the ticketing events, allowing local and interstate artists to be paid out of ticket sales rather than bar money.
Hollee explains it provides a more holistic, non-alcoholic approach to music midweek, and especially when young people aren’t knocking them back like they used to.
Sometimes those generational changes are for the best, as we watch DJing turn from a gatekept skill to an accessible and yet still in-demand one.
"The DJ school has made that entry point a lot easier, our style is non-competitive, super open, explore your music, explore your style," she says.
"It's friendly, not exclusionary. You can walk into QUIVR and ask dumb questions and no one will call you an idiot," Ruby adds, with a chuckle. "It's a safe space."
Although, Hollee admits a DJ is still born out of the music experiences that change their life.
"My whole background has been on dancefloors, I was on them first, for 30-something years, globally," Hollee recalls. "My passion for music started at Big Day Out, Livid, and Homebake, then the Boiler Room side stage got me into electronic music, hearing The Chemical Brothers for the first time."
The Soft Launch & Hard Launch
While the official launch is still to come, QUIVR isn’t wasting any time getting into the swing of BIGSOUND season, packing out both the laneway and the new Sound Room with a run of parties.
“We've got a stacked week for BIGSOUND. We're holding parties for Music In Exile, and Two-Step/UNDR CTRL," Ruby explains. "We're hosting a big party with GRAIN, which will be exciting and cool and secret and fun. We're doing a Cohort Records party, a TRANSGENRE party and a 4ZZZ ALIENSOUND party for the show Sonic Alien.”
“We've got Ableton and EMC too,” Hollee adds. “It's a good daytime vibe for that one.”
“We're stacked both in the laneway and the Sound Room, and it's kind of going to be our little pre-debut before our official launch party," offers Ruby. "Next year we'll be aiming for some official (BIGSOUND) stuff, but this year we just wanted to float along by ourselves and have a good time and be able to do whatever we wanted.
For those unable to make it to BIGSOUND’s mid-week festivities, QUIVR’s hard launch is set for the 12th of September.
“We'll be throwing a big opening party for all the community here in Brisbane,” Hollee beams. For her and Dara, it makes the hard yakka all worth it.
Head to QUIVR's website for updates on their current plans, social media links, and all the necessary info to have a good time.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
