Lockout debate continues
So the debate about Sydney’s lockout laws has gone into overdrive with the Keep Sydney Open group announcing new ways to highlight the negative impact the laws are having on the state’s live music scene.
Keep Sydney Open is installing plaques outside the venues that have closed.
The aim is to put the spotlight on the significance of the situation and also celebrate NSW live music culture.
The plaques will list the names of some the state’s most successful artists - Flume, Alison Wonderland, The Presets, You Am I – and identifying the venues where they got their start.
Venues affected by the lockout include Kings Cross’ Hugos, Piano Room and Soho, Darlinghurst's Phoenix, 34B, Q Bar, Spectrum and Flinders, and The Lansdowne, Club 77 and Goodgod Small Club in the CBD.
They will have plagues installed.
“It sends a clear message to the government that live music cannot survive without live music venues, which is where our world-beating talent first hone their craft,” the Keep Sydney Open statement said.
In addition to that, musicians are performing outside the venues that have since closed where the plaques are standing now.
Critics of the lockout law, like the Live Music Office, claim that live performance revenue in the lockout zone has collapsed by 40 per cent.
With venues unable to admit new patrons after 1.30am or serve drinks after 3am, attendance at nightclubs and dance venues has dropped 19 per cent in the CBD, Darlinghurst and Kings Cross.
On the other hand, numbers presented to the recent Callinan review found there had been a 45 per cent reduction in non-domestic assaults in Kings Cross and a 20.3 per cent reduction in the CBD, minimal evidence of displacement of violence to surrounding areas in Sydney and a 25 per cent reduction in alcohol-related and serious critical injuries at St Vincent’s Hospital.
by Leon Gettler, September 26th 2016
