In Australia's music capital, there are glimmers of hope for the return of live music. But it'll be drastically different and more expensive, and industry is warning beloved venues will close forever unless governments step in.
Standing in the empty band room of Fitzroy's The Nightcat, co-owner Justin Stanford is looking at a set-up drastically different to what it was before COVID-19 closed the Melbourne jazz club in March.Below, the dance floor has been taken over by small tables with crisp white tablecloths, meticulously placed the required 1.5 metres apart."On a Saturday night, we'll probably run three shows back-to-back — a 7:00pm, a 10:00pm and a 1:00am.
"You'll probably be booking tables with four, six or 10 people, ordering food and drinks through an app, which screens at some venues behind the bar," said Patrick Donovan, the chief executive of Music Victoria. Mr Donovan said to compensate for smaller gigs, ticket prices would need to be jacked up to ensure those who performed the music and helped serve it up were adequately paid.
"Most of these venues won't be able to reopen until they can actually return a profit. A lot of them can't see a way out at the moment."One of those venues is the iconic Collingwood pub, The Tote. "It's hard to see, under the current guidelines, how tickets are going to be less than about $60. And I just don't think people are prepared to pay that," he said."The protections are all going to drop off somewhere around October 1. After that, if we don't get a lifeline from the Government, you're going to see music venues just disappear en masse.
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