Sydney music venues close fast, owners look for DIY options

triple j

Topic:Music

Owners and key figures see DIY spaces as the more viable option as small venues in Sydney close down. (Supplied: Joe Hardy)

The live music community in Sydney has been devastated over the past 12 months.

At least eight venues have closed their doors, drastically reducing the number of smaller-capacity rooms in the city.

They are places where bands and artists cut their teeth, try out new music, and potentially get scouted for larger rooms.

They are also where fans discover new artists and support their local scene.

Sydney's music ecosystem struggled as spaces like Mary's Underground, People's Republic, Lazy Thinking and MoshPit turned the lights off for various reasons, including skyrocketing insurance and rental costs, evictions and noise restrictions.

Many of the venues were beholden to a landlord, and the risks that came with operating in a rented space.

Despite government grants, council support, fundraising and more, smaller-capacity venues are barely breaking even, let alone turning a profit.

Eventually, something has got to give.

How bad is it in Sydney?

SydneyMusic co-founder Joe Hardy has seen the closures across the city through the not-for-profit's extensive gig guide, showing that shuttered venues held more than 690 live music events between July 2025 and June 2026.

"They're all different problems between them," Hardy said.

"It's very easy to just look at them and go, 'That's just all the same thing,' but no. When you actually dive into it, they've all had different root causes.

"Some of them have been really successful from audience and engagement perspectives, but then you have landlord issues and then others do have real problems with an aging-out demographic."

Among the recent closures was Lazy Thinking; a bar, venue and record store that focused on providing a space for independent Australian artists.

The venue rarely broke even and lost money every month it was open over the past three years, which didn't deter venue owner Jim Flanagan.

He made it work with a "handful of extraordinary donors, the occasional government grant, one-off donations and, increasingly, our members".

In July, the space was featured in a Guardian article about music lovers having to "adapt or die" in the face of a changing environment.

One month later, Flanagan announced the closure of Lazy Thinking after receiving an eviction notice from the venue's landlords.

Told to vacate by the end of the year, Flanagan instead decided to shut up shop at the end of August and spend the rest of the year taking stock and working towards how the space could exist again in a new, more permanent and sustainable venue.

"Part of me was like, 'You know what, what's the point of continuing? I need to fundraise like a crazy person every month to keep the venue afloat and Lazy Thinking more generally,'" Flanagan said.

"I don't think it's a useful use of my or other people involved in Lazy Thinking's energy to … do all this work to subsidise a space that we know we're going to lose.

"I do not think the economics of running a small music venue in Sydney right now works at all.

"I wish I was wrong, [but] we are seeing that every day with more venues."

A city-wide situation

It's not just spaces that host emerging acts that are feeling the ever-growing pressure of trying to exist in Sydney's stressful economic climate.

Earlier this year, Mary's Underground, which has provided a stage to artists like Gordi, High Vis, Bad//Dreems and more, announced it would be closing after seven years in Sydney's CBD.

Alongside Mary's Underground, the team also books Liberty Hall, a 1,200-capacity venue opposite Hordern Pavilion.

"It's concerning in terms of like, where's the bridging venues for developing Australian artists to get to that level of room?" said Tom Gordon, director of music and programming.

"Also, playing a stage of that level and then jumping up to a Liberty Hall or something along those lines is a pretty wild jump to take."

Mary's Underground provided a space for a range of artists in the heart of Sydney's CBD. (triple j: Oliver Quirk)

With the closure of smaller rooms reducing the pool of spaces where emerging bands can get a gig, other venues will likely have to be more selective when booking shows.

Gordon said venue spaces of similar size to the 500-capacity Oxford Art Factory would survive.

"[When spaces] like Mary's Underground disappear, inadvertently shows will go there, which is great," he said.

"We're happy about that. But then Oxford Art Factory is going to be booked every single day of the week, and they're going to prioritise the shows that sell the most tickets.

"So, a lot of those local communities are going to have to move towards DIY [Do It Yourself] because there isn't another option."

DIY common thread

Sydney's music scenes seem to be turning to the do-it-yourself approach at a community level in the face of traditional venues closing.

Musicians, independent record labels and fans are being creative in finding spaces for live music, drawing on decades of experience from historic DIY scenes that have propped up punk, hardcore and electronic music in Australia.

From gigs in backyards and lounge rooms to acoustic shows in parks, skate bowls and empty warehouses, people are finding ways to plug in, play music and build community.

"You don't have scenes building in the same way inside traditional venue architecture," Hardy said.

"I think the thing that's really proving this point is what's happening in the DIY space, which I think in the last 24 months has really seen a resurgence to a degree.

"It's hard to plot even for me because it's all happening in real time and you sort of see a lot of the effects in retrospect.

Entertainment precinct approach

While high rents and insurance are deeper systemic issues, the Inner West Council has been working to ease pressures controlled at its level.

Special entertainment precincts (SEPs) have been trialled along the Enmore Road strip over the past three years, and have expanded to other areas including Balmain, Marrickville and Dulwich Hill to help boost creative communities.

The precincts allow venues to run under extended trading hours, council-regulated sound allowances, and within specified zones that offer extra protection from noise complaints and other external risks that come with operating a venue.

Darcy Byrne wants other councils to open their town halls for creative use. (ABC News: Nick Dole)

Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne is working with the City of Sydney to mark Newtown's King Street as a special entertainment precinct.

He said other councils across NSW were planning their own SEPs, including Byron Bay, Randwick and Burwood, which he said was an "interesting case".

"Burwood Road is extraordinarily lively late at night," he said.

"It's going well, but it's a different culture. It's very ethnically diverse and the night-time activity is far less dependent on alcohol.

"That's change that we're seeing across the board with younger people having a healthier relationship with alcohol than previous generations.

"But that doesn't mean they don't want to go out late at night and it doesn't mean that they are not interested in live music.

"So governments, including local councils, need to think carefully about what are we going to do to cultivate spaces and venues for younger people who do want to be out in the public domain and on the streets late at night, but they don't necessarily want to do it through getting pissed at the pub."

Looking abroad for answers

Internationally, music communities have formed initiatives like the Music Venue Trust, a UK charity that aims to protect and nurture local live music through the purchasing of long-term venues, ensuring their existence.

While an initiative like this is something that is yet to exist in Australia, Cr Byrne has encouraged councils across the country to follow the Inner West Council and allow town halls and other council-run spaces to be used for creative purposes.

"We've had thousands of artists making use of those facilities, which has been good," he said.

"[They are] public institutions that have huge heritage value and we have to invest very large sums in maintaining and upgrading, but they were sitting dormant 80 or 90 per cent of the time.

"Opening them up for artistic use has been a good thing, something I would encourage councils across New South Wales to do. Every council has a town hall. Some of them have multiple town halls, and mostly they're sitting unused for large slabs of time.

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