Famous Brisbane Live Venue Has 'About Five Months' To Survive Unless Govt Restrictions Ease

One of Brisbane's favourite music venues may only have "about five months" left to survive if COVID-19 restrictions are not adjusted to better accommodate live spaces. 

As Brisbane Times reports, John "JC" Collins - Powderfinger bassist and co-owner of The Triffid and Fortitude Music Hall - joined Brisbane lord mayor Adrian Schrinner on Thursday to call on the State Government to ease restrictions through its Fair Play campaign.

The Triffid and Fortitude Music Hall can host a fully-seated audience, however that only equates to about one-third capacity in both spaces and speaking to The Music, Collins said it will have severe consequences if eased restrictions are not considered soon. 

"The Triffid has about five months left under the current circumstances," Collins said.

"The Fortitude Music Hall should be able to survive but the private equity partners would struggle to stay in the game."

Brisbane's snap three-day lockdown in late March and reverting back to mandatory seating at gigs cost The Triffid "around $40,000" in just that two week period, and while there has been much public discussion about sporting events being favoured more and being allowed to return to 100% capacity, Collins simply wants support for live music venues to be able to survive coming out of the pandemic.

"I’m advocating that we get a capacity that is sustainable for the venues to survive," he said.

"We are not suggesting full capacity at all.

"We have not been given any indication of what the end date is for the music industry.

"It would be helpful to have some trigger points to know what is ahead of us."

In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak last year,  Collins joined a special episode of The Green Room podcast where he raised similar concerns, given that venues were unable to make any revenue with the shutdowns. 

"It's a huge effect. We've got no revenue," he said at the time.

"We're now into how long can we survive? That's where we are at the moment."