WA Venue The Bird At Risk Of Closure
The venue owner says The Bird is "on the chopping block".
Body Type @ The Bird (Source: Supplied)
Northbridge, WA venue The Bird is at risk of closure, venue owner Kabir Ramasary told The West Australian yesterday.
The owner revealed that despite hosting regular sold-out shows, The Bird is facing sinking bar revenue. The venue’s struggles are finding Ramasary needing to make extra money each week to keep the space open – between $2,500 and $5,000.
Ramasary believes the changing habits of concertgoers have led to The Bird’s present struggles, with many punters turning up to see the headliners but not showing up early for the drinks and food.
The Bird is a 176-capacity venue that’s seen the likes of Tame Impala, Methyl Ethel, Flume, Stella Donnelly, Spacey Jane and many more walk through its hallowed doors. While the space operates as a bar from 3 pm until 8 pm, for 12 years, The Bird has hosted tons of live music at night.
“It’s our turn on the chopping block,” Ramasary told The West Australian. “This is do or die for us, and so we’re calling on our community for help.”
Next year, The Bird will host the mini-festival and crowd-funding campaign Keep The Bird Flying. Ramasary hopes the campaign will inject a much-needed $95,000 into the venue.
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Keep The Bird Flying will start on 13 January and run until 4 February, with the promise of local live bands, “free-flowing drinks”, and a $100 entry fee. The weeks-long event will be hosted by the Australian Cultural Fund, hoping to raise $25,000 through the events.
Last week, The Bird was named Best Live Music Venue at the WAM Awards.
The Bird’s struggles follow the forthcoming closure of Badlands Bar in Perth. Venue owners announced the closure for this December in July, citing rising costs, including increased costs of insurance premiums.
Organisers wrote in a social media post, “Being an independently owned small business, these massive increases coming straight after COVID have taken a huge toll on the business. This, in addition to other substantial increases in operating costs across the board in the past 12 months, means that Badlands is no longer financially viable.”
But, Badlands won’t close without one last celebration led by Karnivool, hosting three gigs on Wednesday, 20 December, Thursday, 21 December and Friday, 21 December.
In addition to Karnivool playing the last-ever shows at Badlands Bar, the venue will host a Hello Goodbye Christmas Party by British India on Saturday, 16 December, a celebration of Psychedelic Porn Crumpets’ new album, Fronzoli, on Saturday, 11 December, while 90s rock heroes Def FX will return to the West Coast of Australia for the first time in 27 years to farewell Badlands Bar.
Regurgitator will also perform their final Badlands shows on Saturday, 25 and Sunday, 26 November.
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