Live Music To Return To Much-loved Brisbane Venue With New 'Anti-Social' Program

Brisbane venue The Zoo has announced live music will be returning next month. 

The Fortitude Valley venue has today announced their new 'Anti-Social' program that will see gigs return from 11 July with two groups of 100 people allowed in the venue per night. 

“I was adamant that we weren't going to open until 500 people were allowed back in the venue, we survive on those bigger shows,” said owner Pixie Weyand. 

"Generally 100 people in the venue for us is a financial loss so it took a bit of adjusting to make sense of it all and change my mindset. We have no choice but be creative and think outside the box, I want us as an industry to look forward and move forward as productively and safely as we can together with the information and resources at hand.”

“As a venue we don't have the luxury of time to sit tight and wait, every week that goes by we go further and further backwards. 

"Right now we have no idea what the future holds or when restrictions might lift or go back to normal, for our survival we need to absolutely work with whats in front of us together and as an industry we need to be agile, creative & flexible otherwise we will remain stagnant or even worse be forced into silence for good."

The venue will kick off shows with Brisbane act Butterfingers on 11 July, with Bugs, Asha Jeffries, The Dreggs, Concrete Surfers and more locked in for the coming months.  

“Having our entire industry decimated overnight with little to no government support offered in the interim has certainly made a lot of people rightly re-evaluate their priorities,” said Bugs frontman Connor Brooker. 

“For me this has actually solidified my own commitment to create music for the rest of my life as I see firsthand the benefit it provides to so many others. I want to be a beacon for positivity during this period and beyond, for myself and others.” “I've also just been really lonely. My entire social life revolves around the music industry in Brisbane, so it's been an emotionally isolated few months for a lot of people. 

"It's going to be a euphoric and cathartic release when we're all back in a room together. Emotions will run high."

Head to The Zoo website here for all the info.