‘It Will Be Dark Days’: Vic Music Venue’s Warning About Insurance Crisis

Rising insurance premiums are enough to kill the live music industry’s small-to-medium sized venues. That’s the message portrayed on the latest episode of SBS’ Insight, aired on Tuesday, May 6th.

The messaging was part of an episode fittingly-titled Uninsurable, which explored the increasing unaffordability of insurance as it investigated case studies of those affected by rising premiums and a country in which extreme weather and inflation has led to more Australians than ever becoming uninsurable.

Representing the music industry was Stephen Crombie, the co-owner of Belgrave venue Sooki Lounge, who outlined the realities of rising insurance premiums. “Put your head in a washing machine, put it on all 12 cycles,” Crombie explained. “Once it's done, you've got the experience of being in the live music industry.”

Crombie, who has managed the venue in the outer suburb of Naarm/Melbourne for just over 11 years now with his partner Anna, explains that despite the high-profile names that have played the venue over the years, high costs of insurance have left the pair unsure of whether they can remain operational on a week-by-week basis.

As Crombie explained, their early days saw roughly half-a-dozen insurers willing to insure the medium-sized venue, with that number slowly dwindling until it reached none.

“Our public liability has gone up from $15,000 pre-Covid to $60,000 as it stands now,” he explained.
“Yes, they price gouge, but they’re just really handballing a number and we don't have a choice. We have to have public liability.

“We're already only just breaking even last year we lost a quarter of a mil,” Crombie adds. “No one in this industry is in it for the money. I mean, you don't work 70 hours a week for that.”

In 2024, Crombie noted there was an increase of $37,500 in their premiums in a single calendar year, meaning that if these trends continue, there is a very real chance that the venue could be forced to shut its doors – a prospect which causes daily anxiety for Sooki Lounge’s owners.

“I don't blame the insurance companies as much as they're mega businesses,” Crombie admits. “It's pretty simple, if the government does not get involved here and come in and govern and underwrite the industry on some level at a profit, it's not rocket science, we're not gonna be around.

“The town will go back to what it was, which was a lack of spark, a lack of energy,” he concludes. “It will be dark days. The town needs this venue.”

While the Australian music industry has welcomed the re-election of the Labor Government, it currently remains unclear as to whether politicians – including a noted music-lover such as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – will step in to ensure that insurance becomes less of an issue for venues such as Sooki Lounge.

The latest episode of SBS’ Insight is available to watch now via SBS On Demand.