This fortnight saw money concerns still a prime worry with closures of rooms in Geelong and Darwin and a dispute over funding for renovations to an iconic amphitheatre.
But at the same time, the scene sparkled with new signings, expansions, a boost for Hobart venues and grants for WA music facilities.
City Of Hobart Votes To Boost Live Music Venues
The City of Hobart has embarked on a project turning non-traditional venues to free all-ages music spaces as part of a macro-festival series.
It signed a 12-month partnership with Live Music Office (LMO) to pilot two of its Live & Local schemes, each running 12-15 months, and introducing it to Tasmania for the first time.
Funding involves a $32,000 council contribution alongside $52,000 from the LMO. Council will run Live & Local, with project management and policy advisory support from the LMO.
According to a Council report, it would include the hiring of a Policy Consultant “to guide better regulation and strategic policy development”, and a Venues Liaison “to assist in programming and delivery of program activities.”
The idea is to get more local musicians and businesses to get involved. Initiatives to build the Tasmanian live music scene include a music database, a Live Music Census, Professional Development workshops with QMusic in Brisbane, and analysis and data building with Griffith University.
Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter
Long term plans are to reach out to QMusic in Brisbane to develop Professional Development workshops, and with Griffith University “to deliver reporting and evaluation process including a summary report, analysis of surveys, program data and photography.”
Live & Local, Council said, was a low risk low cost initiative. “The Tasmanian music industry is a vital economic and cultural driver, contributing to our brand, jobs, tourism, and community resilience and sense of place.
“However, key challenges such as limited infrastructure, high travel costs, and regulatory barriers threaten its sustainability and growth.
“Around Australia, states and territories are engaging in ‘red tape reduction’ and better regulation development to support the growth of live music, particularly through evening economy development.”
Sands Tavern Expands Outdoor Space
The Sands Tavern in Maroochydore, QLD – which showcases live music every Friday, Saturday and Sunday – has just gone through a renovation that saw its outdoor space expanded.
Australian Venue Co (AVC)’s new beer garden with flexible seating to fit in with how younger patrons are socialising these days, a large screen for events and a half basketball court.
Melbourne Park Signs Up AXS
Melbourne Park struck a deal with US ticketing agency AXS to cover all music, sports and entertainment at Rod Laver Arena, AAMI Park, John Cain Arena, and Margaret Court Arena. The deal does not include the Australian Open.
For patrons, new digital platforms and technology will be introduced to support their purchase, journey and accessibility experience.
AXS, headquartered in Los Angeles, has been used in Australia on tours by Ed Sheeran, Robbie Williams, and Foo Fighters. But this is the first time it’s signed with a major venue.
WA Venues Glow From Lotterywest $10M Grants
A number of music showcasing WA venues will be among 41 organisations sharing in $10 million worth of grants from Lotterywest's Arts and Culture Infrastructure Grant Program.
The City of Fremantle got $280,000 to upgrade the heritage-listed Victoria Hall. The Performing Arts Centre Society secured a $495,000 to refurbish and technical upgrades of the Blue Room Theatre and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts got $328,477.
Premier Roger Cook said: "Meaningful investment in infrastructure, equipment and technology within these spaces will create long-lasting benefits for WA's creative sector, supporting local artists and strengthening arts and culture in our regions.”
Half the funding went to regional WA, reaching the South West, Gascoyne, Wheatbelt, Goldfields-Esperance, Mid West, Great Southern, Peel, and Kimberley regions.
The largest regional grant was more than $420,000 for a new cultural and creative space in Warburton, a remote community in the Goldfields-Esperance region.
This was the first of three planned rounds. A further $20 million will be distributed across the next two financial years, bringing the full program to $30 million.
Amazon Music Follows Apple Music With Bandsintown Concert Listings
Concert listings on Bandsintown are from May automatically also on Amazon Music, “helping more fans discover and attend your live shows,” it blogged. Fans can check venue and tour data, buy tickets on Amazon Music and be alerted to nearby shows.
This expands the live experience for Amazon Music which already offers streaming, merch and livestreams.
In March, Apple Music conducted a similar integration with Bandsintown, its new Concerts tab letting users filter shows by location, genre, and date, with each listing including venue information, set lists and direct ticket links.
The two companies already having an existing relationship, with Bandsintown already supplying live event data to Shazam, Apple Maps, Spotlight Search, Apple Photos, and Apple Music’s Set Lists feature.
Bandsintown has 100 million registered fans, and features 2.3 million events annually from over 700,000 artists and 65,000 venues.
Row Over Iconic Darwin Amphitheatre Upgrade
A row has broken out over funding for an upgrade of the iconic Darwin Amphitheatre, the NT News reported.
Situated in the George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens, the 7,000-capacity venue has hosted concerts including by Bob Dylan, Cold Chisel, Yothu Yindi, Tina Turner, and Chuck Berry, as well as the National Indigenous Music Awards.
The City of Darwin says the facility, built in 1965, needs to be updated to the tune of $13.4 million. A spokesperson was quoted in the paper, “Without investment, the venue risks becoming increasingly constrained, limiting the scale and diversity of events that can be delivered.”
The City – along with the AANT Centre, Music NT, Larrakia Nation and Tourism Top End – wrote to the NT Arts Minister Jinson Charls to consider stumping up funds to stop it from decaying.
But Minister Charls has apparently not responded, and considers the funding is not a NT issue.
He told the NT News, “The Amphitheatre is a City of Darwin asset and an important venue for Territorians to enjoy music and other art forms.
“The City of Darwin has shared a proposal with the federal government, seeking a funding arrangement of 70% from the Commonwealth and 30% from the Northern Territory government – resulting in no financial contribution from the city for an asset it owns.”
Yours & Owls Returns To Flagstaff Hill
After making a successful debut in 2025 at Flagstaff Hill on Wollongong’s foreshore drawing 15,000, Yours & Owls has confirmed it's returning to the site in October. This year, it’s also expanding to a two-day format.
Promoter Ben Tillman explained: “We want to keep things affordable and accessible to everyone! The current festival model, in the current insane climate, isn’t working, so we gotta mix it up a little.
“When the shit hits the fan, we swivel! When COVID told us we couldn’t dance, we delivered a quadrant site with a spinning stage, weird, yes, but we danced into the night and still talk about it years later.
“When the overlords running our globe catapult us into a worsening cost-of-living crisis, we adapt to ensure we still get the big names you know and love on the big stage and still spark your curiosity with your yet-to-be-discovered new favourite bands in and around the city at a price you can afford.”
Geelong’s Piano Bar Closing…
Piano player Andy Pobjoy took to social media to announce Piano Bar in Geelong, Victoria, is closing after eleven years due to rising costs, a lack of proper public transport, and the toll of running it on his own.
In a video post, he said, “We opened back in 2015 with no hospitality experience, just a piano and a crazy idea, and it somehow it turned into thousands of nights.”
The bar is closing at its Little Malop St premises but plans are to keep the format going as pop-ups in other venues over the next couple of months at least. Pobjoy opened the club on a budget of $20,000 but now has expenses of $250,000.
…While Darwin’s PINT Goes Dark
Darwin PINT Club, well known for its Sunday blues jams, went permanently dark this week.
The committee of the Pint Club Association Incorporation told members it had “received advice from its advisors, that the Association should be placed into Voluntary Liquidation.”
The association had previously gone into voluntary admission in July 2023 when it was close to $1 million in debt. Creditors opted to give it four years to trade it out of the red. But three years in, a decision was made. “It is not financially viable to continue trading.” The club ceased trading at close of business on Monday April 27.
Musical Chairs
Phillippa Martin Reiter joined the executive team of Sydney’s City Recital Hall in the new role of Director of Programming and Events, leading a merged programming and events team. He was most recently Head of Programming Operations at Sydney Opera House.
Darwin’s AANT Centre’s new CEO John Glenn takes over in June. He was most recently at the Adelaide Festival Centre and Chair of MusicSA. He said his focus is on supporting Territory artists, particularly First Nations voices, and strengthening connections with audiences and community.
After 30 years with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF), Susan Provan announced this week she is stepping down as Festival Director and CEO. She stays on until August when her successor is expected to be named.
Under her watchful eye, since 1995, the MICF became the world’s largest dedicated comedy festival, she developed new generations of comedians (50% of them women, and with a focus on First Nations comics) and audiences, expanded broadcast and streaming content and built relationships with the emerging comedy industries in Asia. In 2018 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia.
Adam McCurdie and Joshua Ross’ Humanitix, the Sydney-based events booking platform that directs 100% of profits to charitable projects, tapped Hugh Jackman as Head of Impact while highlighting their direction of over $20 million to projects tackling global poverty and education. Jackman’s post is available via their website.
Byron Shire Council is seeking an experienced Event Manager for its 2026 NYE celebration Soul Street, a free community festival. They will be in charge of entertainment and participatory events, staging and production, security services, site management, food vendors, waste and sustainability measures. See their website for further information.
One of the longest serving old-school VIP nightclub doormen on the Surfers Paradise strip, Jimmy Ozturk, retired to spend more time with the grandchildren, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported.
Save Our Arts Pushes For Arena Levy, Insurance Reform, Cultural Passes
Responding to Federal Arts Minister Tony Burke’s call for input from the music industry for the ALP’s Revive program, Save Our Arts put in 25 recommendations.
Most applicable to the live sector were a 3% state-based arena levy on large-scale concerts in venues with a capacity of 3,000+ to be distributed to grassroots venues and artists.
With Public liability insurance for small to medium venues up to 400–1000%, needed was “coordinated reform, including tort reform, government-backed underwriting, and industry risk pooling.”
Also from the lobby group was a recommendation for a $180 million Culture Pass scheme that’s been trialled successfully in France and Italy. It gives $100 vouchers to all 16-to-21-year-olds to spend on concerts, theatre and books to reignite the practice of going out.
For music streaming services, it suggested both a levy and content quota to “increase visibility (of emerging Australian acts), rebalance algorithmic bias, and strengthen the domestic music pipeline.”
Council Stops Unicorn Hotel Renos
Sydney’s Woollahra Council has stepped in to stop what it calls unauthorised renovations in the heritage-listed Unicorn Hotel in Paddington, the Sydney Morning Herald revealed.
The pub on Oxford Street is much loved for its live music program. The Council contends that the owner destroyed floors, internal walls, stairs, and the roof before lodging a development application in March for emergency structural changes, and before Council could decide.
RÜFÜS DU SOL, Tame Impala Drawing Crowds
Reports of attendance figures reported to Pollstar’s box office score show that Australian acts were doing well recently in the northern hemisphere.
RÜFÜS DU SOL topped the ratings after a six-city South American run in February/ March as part of the Inhale/Exhale World Tour saw them draw a total of 78,954 to five of the shows.
Pollstar noted that in 2025, 46 shows grossed a reported $60 million worldwide. Tickets to 36 venues reached 707,248.
Tame Impala entered the box office score after beginning the European leg of their Deadbeat tour in Porto, Portugal on April 4. Full details are yet to be published. But on a string of US shows last October and November, Kevin Parker and pals had 64,145 at a four-night stint at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center with 64,145 tickets sold “and three shows at Kia Forum in Inglewood, California that drew 49,894 fans.”
Of Lewis Capaldi’s seven-city tour of Australia and NZ late last year, Pollstar noted that three dates at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena was to a total of 43,491 fans and a $4.5 million gross.
Concept Sessions Landing At Office
Episode 8 of the Concept Sessions, supported by City of Adelaide, follows the concept of three acts playing in a non-traditional space this Saturday May 2.
The venue is The Distillery Office, headquarters of smart digital and data tech consultancies Distillery in the CBD (French Street). Playing are jazz influenced Kara Manansala, pop-R&B female vocal trio Opulence and Zimbabwean poet and beatmaker Praise Mangena.
This From Overseas…
They did the farewell shows, but KISS confirmed that they’ll continue to play as avatars. The 3-D holograms debut in Las Vegas in 2028.
After having his passport stamped “Not Welcome” in England, Kanye West’s Poland and Switzerland dates were cancelled for jabbering antisemitic remarks.
Chinese Superfans are fast emerging as leaders. Luminate data shows they are twice as likely as U.S. superfans to purchase digital merchandise and 13% more likely to buy digital copies of music.
According to the new Economic Impact of Live Music in Spain report, ticket sales quadrupled in a decade to nearly €6 billion (AU$9.78 billion).
QLD, NT Festivals Get Government Lifelines
Festivals such as Music In The Mulga, Betoota Outback Desert Muster, Outback River Lights, Dustarena Long Weekend, and Festival Of Outback Opera were among 15 events sharing in $282,000 of The Western Queensland Events Boost Fund.
This was to help the recovery of those affected by flooding in nine regions with expanded event schedules, marketing campaigns, additional performers, improved production and specialist media support.
In the Northern Territory, festivals such as Blacken Open Air, Desert Fringe, Desert Harmony, Bush Bands Bash, Darwin International Film Festival, and Darwin Comedy Festival were among 26 recipients of Round 2 of the 2025–26 Event Funding Program (EFP).
Covering music, arts, culture, food and sport and administered by Tourism and Events NT, the statement read: “These events play a vital role in strengthening the Territory’s visitor economy, supporting local businesses and showcasing the NT as a year-round destination for world class experiences.”
Geelong Stadium Taps Event Force
Event Force is the new customer service partner to Kardinia Park Stadium Trust at Geelong's 40,000-capacity GMHBA Stadium, “following a competitive selection process.”
Event Force, which works with 20 venues nationally, is briefed under the agreement to provide customer service staff to support event-day operations and enhance the patron experience at the sports and entertainment Victorian venue. The company has started to recruit for jobs at the stadium.
Tassie Bouncer, Security Firm, Lose Appeal
Former Hobart bouncer Faleupolu Atileo and his employer SL Security lost an appeal against a $12.5 million damages award for causing injury, the Hobart Mercury reported.
In 2014, while working outside the Syrup nightclub, Atileo delivered a single punch to bricklayer’s labourer Matthew Leonard. He spent nine months in the Royal Hobart Hospital – including eight weeks in intensive care – and now requires 24-hour care and is unable to work.
The Mercury recounted, “Acting judge David Porter awarded Mr Leonard more than $13 million in damages, including $8.5 million for future attendant care, $1.5 million for past and future loss of earning capacity, and $2 million for “special damages” and medical expenses.”
The judge reduced the amount to take into account that Leonard contributed to the fracas by punching the bouncer and another “while heavily intoxicated, and arguing after he was removed from the club.”
In his appeal Atileo argued that the trial judge erred when he said he had intended to cause injury when he struck the victim. The full court rejected the argument.
The paper also reported, “Proceedings against the nightclub – which shut down in 2016 – and its manager were discontinued shortly before the 2022 civil trial began.”
Meltdowns!
The latest round of arson against 14 of Melbourne’s licensed venues took place on the weekend when Bar Up in Prahran was firebombed three hours after shots were fired at The Emerson in South Yarra.
It was the third attack on The Emerson, with a fire lit in its loading dock in April and a ram raid in February. Others included Bar Bambi in the CBD, SoHo Bar in Southbank, and The Albion in South Melbourne. Several arrests were made.
Former aged care worker Eamon Liam Muller ended up in Maroochydore Magistrates Court after a couple mocked his German accent at the Nambour Hotel on February 3, 2025. The woman was rendered unconscious after she was punched in the face and fell to the ground.
Townsville band King Social decided to split after their singer Angus Milne was charged with strangling and assaulting a woman in early April.
Gold Coast cabaret room Pink Flamingo is closing after May 9. But its two bosses are disputing why.
Louise Huxham blamed “external pressures relating to trademark control,” but Sue Porrett, whose company owns and controls the intellectual property, told the Gold Coast Bulletin; “I raised concerns over time regarding decisions that I believed had the potential to impact the integrity, governance and management of the intellectual property.”
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
