A tumultuous few months for Fremantle live music Fly By Night has come to a head today, with promoters disputing over the future of the heritage-listed Military Drill Hall.
With the community-focused team behind Fly By Night struggling to renegotiate their lease at the venue local festival promoter Sunset Events have stepped in and been successful in their expression of interest to negotiate lease with the WA National Trust. Sunset are responsible for Southbound and West Coast Blues ‘N’ Roots amongst other WA festivals and have indicated they are willing to commit to a long term 21-year agreement.
In announcing the deal Sunset said their company was “well positioned to commit to the lease and will aim to considerably boost the amount of live music touring acts through the Main Hall.”
However the confirmation of a live music future for the venue hasn’t been met with a unanimously positive response. According to Sunset, Fly By Night had declined an offer of a joint submission and were pushing ahead with their own efforts to renew the lease, with 7,000 signatures on a petition due to de delivered to local government today. With the news this morning that the lease is already being negotiated with Sunset, Fly By Night have criticised the move on social media.
“Actually very pissed off,” they wrote. “Today we were going to deliver the petition, but now it’s going… against the National Trust decision to give Sunset Events a 21 year lease of the Military Drill Hall, which was announced over night.”
They added, “This is hurting. The Military Drill Hall will be no longer a community space belonging to the community if this isn't stopped.”
Today a spokesperson for Sunset events told theMusic.com.au that they’re going to provide a sustainable model for the venue and the live music it hosts.
“Sunset was looking for a venue and heard from various Freo locals that the Fly By Musicians Club was under financial pressure given the government funding, which subsidised it's rent, was stopped. We approached the board of the club and offered to work together whereby Sunset would pay the rent, invest into upgrading facilities and focus on bringing more profiled tours into the space whilst working around the Club's nights required to fundraise.
They added, “Whilst we don’t have access to their financials, the Trust have publicly stated they are concerned about the Fly's sustainability and therefore their ability to pay rent. The reality is a sustainable business model needs to be looked at for The Fly, as their own Chair has stated previously.
“We love live music and intend on bringing more of it into the venue along with opening up the other areas of the building for artists-in-residence, community groups and arts organisations who want to utilise the space.”
Sunset have indicated that the venue’s Small Hall will be used for smaller tours and rehearsals and both halls will be available for use during the day by community and arts organisations.
