Summer Dance ProfileSummer Dance has announced a venue shift after revealing the closure of Liberty Hall Courts for live events. The seasonal party series, which has enjoyed three successful years at the Sydney Entertainment Quarter venue, has been forced to relocate after the venue was revealed to be redeveloping the dancefloor space for permanent padel courts.
The venue loss is another blow to the festival circuit as open-air event spaces in Sydney continue to disappear. According to submissions to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the Live Music Industry by the Committee for Sydney, the state has suffered a net loss of nearly 1,000 live music venues between 2014 and 2024, with the majority concentrated in Greater Sydney’s inner-city entertainment precincts.
"We're gutted to lose our home of three years at Liberty Hall Courts, a place that brought so much joy and helped continue to build the vibrant Summer Dance community we have today," Vichara Edirisinghe, Director of Summer Dance promoters Astral People, said. "Whether it’s a dancefloor or a court, people deserve shared spaces to get together and connect in real life, and those are getting harder to find in Sydney. Bespoke arts and music events being pushed out feels like an all-too-familiar story. We’re lucky to be taking over a new space in Marrickville so our community can keep dancing."
This year’s Summer Dance events will go ahead as scheduled, with the final events at the site being the 2026 parties featuring headline sets from Gilles Peterson, Kerri Chandler, and Silva Bumpa. From 2027, the series will move to a new home on Saywell Street in Marrickville. The first event at the new venue will be the Rinse FM party, which previously sold out but has now released additional tickets due to increased capacity at the new site. The event features JME, Yung Singh, Mia Koden, and more on January 9.
Summer Dance’s first event took place in January 2015 with Omar S alongside local selectors Kali and Simon Caldwell at the National Art School in Darlinghurst. While torrential rain forced that inaugural gathering indoors, it failed to dampen the vibe, kicking off over a decade of signature parties.
The event relocated to Liberty Hall Courts for the 2023 season, establishing a split format with open-air daytime sessions followed by an evening transition to the Liberty Hall club space for late-night programming. Over the years, the parties have hosted international heavyweights including Four Tet, Skrillex, Eris Drew & Octo Octa, Bicep, Ross From Friends, Club Angel, SWIM, and Honey Dijon, while continuing to champion the next generation of Australian dance talent.
Tickets for the Summer Dance x Rinse FM event are available now, with further 2027 dates to be announced soon.
