Brisbane Cafe Offers Free Food To Touring Musicians

We all know that the everyday reality for 99% of touring musicians is a far cry from the fantasy world painted for us through the lens of the 20th century's unapologetic excesses, more swigging from the bottle while sitting in the tub than actually bathing in champagne. One Brisbane cafe, however, is taking a stand and dedicating itself to making a difference.

To that end, LostBoys, in the city's Fortitude Valley entertainment precinct, has taken the initiative to "feed the starving artists", as it were, with its offer of free food for visiting touring acts — and not just free "hey, we had this in a bain marie for three hours and the sauce has gone solid but hook in anyway" pleb grub, either; fresh, vegetarian, vegan, local, organic and sustainable nourishment.

As venue owner Pixie — just Pixie is fine, she cheerfully clarifies — explains to The Music, the initiative is in its very early stages, but it's a cause that runs near and dear to the hearts of not just the community-minded entrepreneur but her support team too.

"We just started it this week, actually, so we've basically contacted venues around Brisbane that have bands generally touring through them, and thought it would be a good opportunity to help in a way that we can," she told The Music.

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"Financially, we can't really do much when it comes to music, and music's something that myself is really passionate about, and most of our staff are musos or involved in music in some way, so we're all on the same page about it.

"I've worked pretty closely with a lot of friends and family who have been musicians, and it's been a bit of a struggle at the best of times, especially financially, so if we can support a touring band with a free feed to come and have brekky or dinner or something … everything makes a difference."

Pixie was inspired to investigate ways to assist struggling visiting musicians based off her first-hand experience with friends who ostensibly have achieved what a casual observer would deem to be "success" with their bands — a nebulous definition at the best of times, especially when you're still having a time feeding yourself.

"I've had some friends who have been very successful in the music scene, gone on tours, they've gone on Warped Tour, and to the outside world have been this really great, successful band, but I know that they're struggling, and it sucks," she said.

"I couldn't help, I couldn't support them through cash, so I was giving them some free food, and I was like, well, there must be so many musos out there who are seemingly doing well, and absolutely doing well, but financially it's so tricky to make money in the music scene at the moment, so I guess that's the biggest way that we can input into their time here."

LostBoys isn't just making the announcement for kicks, either - despite the relative infancy of the idea, Pixie and her crew have been working hard to figure out how they're going to make it fly.

"Basically, how we're envisioning it working at the moment is, just say a band's coming and they'll be here from, say, Thursday through to Monday; we'd just need to be contacted by someone — the venue manager, their manager, even a member of the band themselves — just to say, 'Hey, we're this band, we're going to be here from this time to this time, there's four of us, we might be popping in,'" Pixie explained. "So there's not really like a, 'you have to tell us what time you have to be here', because I know that the nature of most creative people is, like, go on a whim and they kind of do what they want when they please — but it's just for us to know when they may be coming in so I can let the staff know.

"It's just having a bit of regulation in it somehow — it has to be for bands that are on tour, we unfortunately do have to draw a line — so it is bands that are on tour, coming through Brisbane, and it is to help them throughout their tour if they're strapped for cash. And, it's a healthy meal!"

Unsurprisingly, although the plan is really only just coming into its own, early response has been uniformly positive. You'd think (and hope) that this kind of goodwill could do truly excellent things for LostBoys in the long run, but — true to form — Pixie is adamant that, at the end of the day, this really is all about helping our creative community.

"The people that I have contacted have all been pretty open to it and all been really happy to pass it on, so if we can support them in any way we can, that'd be great," she said.

"We don't expect anything in return; obviously, if they like it and post on Instagram about it, that works for us too … but, I mean, it's about helping those guys out how we can."