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The Brisbane independent music scene has been dealt a heavy blow today with Fortitude Valley institution The Zoo announcing it would be closing its doors on 8 July, as trends towards lower alcohol consumption and cost-of-living pressures have significantly offset the "best ticket sales in the venue's history".
Founded in 1992, The Zoo has been at the heart of Brisbane's music scene fostering local talent and hosting artists from around the country and the globe, such as The Black Keys, Lorde, Nick Cave, Ben Harper, Silverchair and Powderfinger, to name just a few.
Current owner Shane Chidgzey bought The Zoo in late 2020 - a time when it was also on the brink of collapse - and tells Business News Australia his time running it has been "one of the best three years of my life".
"I bought the place in mid-December 2020 during COVID, so I knew what I was getting myself into at that stage. I just didn’t know what I was getting myself into post-COVID," he says.
"When we look at our numbers this year financially, we're probably sitting at about 60 per cent of the income of last year, but we’ve had the best ticket sales we’ve ever had in The Zoo’s entire history. It's a pretty damning statement.
"We didn’t go out without trying. We did speak to two other larger groups in regard to venue corporations that do this for a living, and none of them were able to find a method that could be economically viable to run a venue."
Chidgzey has been assessing his options for around six months but encountered a "perfect storm" of a cost-of-living crisis, big touring acts visiting and thus reducing the number of shows people can see, and a broader trend of much lower alcohol consumption with a great focus on health.
"It's wonderful and they should be able to do that, but unfortunately the model within the venue space is that we make our money from food and beverage. That’s it," explains Chidgzey, who grew up in Brisbane and has long been a lover of music.
"If that support changes – and I fully understand why it does, because it’s hard enough to buy a coffee these days, let alone a beer – then we have no income.
"We would have closed in December of 2020 if I hadn't picked it up. I was hoping that things would be a bit different, but just the physical cost of the operation has increased every year."
The Zoo's sister venue Stranded will also have to cease trade on 6 May.
"The live music scene is of massive importance to mental health, and my mental health at this point in time was on rock bottom because I've been trying to figure out how to keep this place alive, and at the end of the day family has to come first," the owner says.
"It’s also about responsible ownership of a business – not running it into the ground and then having to close with no notice.
"So we’ve done our best to get to the end of June with the main venue; Stranded has to close unfortunately because it just doesn’t have the sales to justify keeping it going until June, but the Zoo will go until early July."
Chidgzey adds that the existence of independent music venues is key to developing talent, and venues like The Zoo will give a stage to artists big and small because of the custom feel and atmosphere.
"Without those places existing, we’re just playing into the hands of the future AI industry of music – it’ll all be created, and we’ll just be expected to deal with what we deal with," he says.
"It's not all doom and gloom. At the end of the day, we had an amazing time. It's been one of the best three years of my life watching it grow and expanding and improving.
"Unfortunately, when things started to look like they might turn, even though we were losing money from the beginning, inflation just hit everybody hard. To get a nearly 50 per cent drop in income in one year, that would kill most businesses."
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