Nambour in South East Queensland could be your new favourite place to hang out for gigs, with the Sunshine Coast Creative Alliance proposing Nambour's CBD for a state-first pilot which would ease noise restrictions and encourage more live music venues in the area.
As Sunshine Coast Daily reports, 25 music industry representatives came to a unanimous agreement for a six- to 12-month trial for the pilot which would work to alleviate noise restrictions.
The findings would hopefully then work to amend "bizarre" noise regulations for the area — for example, the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation can shut down live music venues through liquor licensing if it exceeds the "arbitrary" amount of 75 decibels, even though that's roughly the level of vacuum cleaner noise.
Phil Smith, president of Creative Alliance, says, "Using alcohol regulations to manage noise issues is bad policy, it's completely unfair."
"Live music culture is absolutely critical to residential and economic development. There are a lot of young artists coming out of the scene, but because we don't have the venues we can't keep them here.
"Sol Bar is great, but they have difficulty trading and trying to stay open. They are only doing it because they are dedicated to live music and they know that's what fuels Ocean St."
