The Zoo, a beloved music venue in Brisbane, is closing its doors.
The Fortitude Valley venue has been a favourite spot in Brisbane for more than 30 years, but the “financial reality of keeping music venues afloat in 2024 is all too stark,” according to a statement from The Zoo’s team. This is despite The Zoo having its highest ticket sales in its 32-year history last year.
The Zoo will cease trading on July 8th, and its sister venue Stranded will also shut its doors on May 6th.
The statement continues: “We try our best to keep venue hire costs as low as possible for artists and promoters, which means that the financial risks are on the venue, and we depend on bar sales for profit. The cost of supplying alcohol is rising, and bar sales are going down, likely due to a mix of lifestyle changes and cost of living stress for our patrons.
“Despite exploring every avenue available to us, we could not secure the level of support needed to surmount the continued financial strain. We have no choice but to call last drinks for both of our beloved music venues.”
The Zoo has hosted performances from Silverchair, The Black Keys, Lorde, The Church, Nick Cave, and many more iconic acts over the years.
Read the full statement below:
Love Live Music?
Get the latest Live Music news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
As passionate music fans and proud members of the community, it’s impossibly hard to share the news that after nearly 32 years of live music, The Zoo will be closing its doors on July 8th
Sadly, the financial reality of keeping music venues afloat in 2024 is all too stark. The Zoo reached its highest ticket sales in its 32-year history last year, yet this was still not enough to combat rising operational costs, and decreasing returns.
As a music venue, we try our best to keep venue hire costs as low as possible for artists and promoters, which means that the financial risks are on the venue, and we depend on bar sales for profit. The cost of supplying alcohol is rising, and bar sales are going down, likely due to a mix of lifestyle changes and cost of living stress for our patrons.
The hard truth is that we’ve been running at a loss for over 3 years. Despite exploring every avenue available to us, we could not secure the level of support needed to surmount the continued financial strain. We have no choice but to call last drinks for both of our beloved music venues.
Our sister venue Stranded will also be wrapping up, ceasing trade on Monday May 6th…
To our loyal punters and past performers, we thank you for the great times we’ve shared; the decades of dancing, singing and moshing. The kindness of our community of music lovers is a gift The Zoo team has cherished.
We hope you’ll continue to support local live music and keep the scene alive in Brisbane and nationwide.
We encourage you to advocate for live music, to implore our government and music bodies to do everything they can to prevent more venues from closing their doors due to the industry-wide financial pressure that is decimating venues across the country.
We hope you’ll join us for one last dance over the next few months. We want to make the last shows very special and will be looking to add extra shows while we can!
If you have purchased tickets to shows that are outside the closure dates, we’ll be in contact soon.
