The State’s peak physique for reside music venues says it nonetheless doesn’t know why insurance coverage prices are hovering as one other Perth institution has been pressured to close its doorways.
Badlands Bar in Perth metropolis cited exorbitant insurance coverage prices when it broke the news to revellers that it must shut in December.
“For the past 12 months Badlands has been on the receiving end of a whopping 10-fold increase in our public liability insurance premiums despite never having made a claim before,” the venue’s administration mentioned in a social media assertion.
“This was the only insurance coverage we were able to obtain to ensure the venue could continue to operate.”
Management referred to as it a “known but rarely spoken about” dilemma affecting reside music venues throughout the nation.
For seven years the Aberdeen Street late-night bar has been a drawcard for a number of the greatest names in native music, together with Perth’s personal Spacey Jane and Australian favourites Kisschasy.
For musicians similar to Leon Todorovich from laborious rock trio Ragdoll, the decline in native reside music venues shall be a success to the trade.
“Primarily where an individual band might not be able to fill up a room but you can put together a local mini-festival — or there’s a national act that comes through where you end up with a few support acts,” he mentioned.
“(Badlands Bar) is sort of one of the last places where you could do something like that.”
The lead guitarist mentioned it was apparent the local weather of reside music was quickly altering as venue choices dwindled throughout Perth.
“There are certainly fewer places to play,” he mentioned.
“There’s also fewer people coming out in the past 10 years. You’re no longer competing with three or four shows on the same night, you’re also competing with Netflix, you’re competing with streaming shows.
“Live music is now one of maybe 10 things you can choose to do on any given night.”
West Australian Music govt director Livia Carre mentioned Badlands’ closure could be an amazing loss for WA’s modern music group. She mentioned the venue wasn’t alone in a struggling trade.
“Badlands is the third live music venue to fall victim to the post-COVID environment of increasing operational costs and public liability insurance in under 12 months,” she mentioned.
“This follows the closures of The Aardvark in Fremantle and The Sewing Room in Perth.”
Ms Carre mentioned there was no clear motive about why prices had been quickly growing.
“We still don’t have an answer as to why insurers have dramatically increased the public liability premiums for live music venues,” she mentioned.
“This is not just a WA issue but is happening right across the country and has become a hot topic in our national conversations.”
Other standard venues throughout Perth are dealing with an identical dilemma.
Night Owl Entertainment Group strategic partnerships director Jeff Halley mentioned the numerous expense was detrimental to the business’s monetary sustainability.
The leisure group runs a number of venues throughout Perth and Fremantle, together with golf equipment Amplifier, Magnet House and Metropolis Fremantle.
“Like Badlands, our venues have had to endure much public liability insurance premiums over the past 18 months,” he mentioned.
“This has seen insurance across Amplifier and Magnet House in Perth, for example, rise from around $50,000 up to a now whopping $100,000.”
Mr Halley mentioned they’d been hit by a double whammy of elevated prices and a diminished selection of insurance coverage suppliers.
“It’s getting very hard to find insurers wanting to cover our venues,” he mentioned.
“We used to have half a dozen underwriters quote … this is now down to one.”
Freo.Social managing director James Legge mentioned whereas the southern suburbs venue had seen commerce choose up post-COVID, insurance coverage prices nonetheless needed to be mitigated.
“We have worked closely with our insurance brokers to limit premium increases but they have risen significantly over the last few years, which we have had to absorb,” he mentioned.
“This is a massive increase (affecting) the live music sector throughout Australia.
“It’s very important that the live music sector works closely with insurance bodies and Government to try mitigate this issue so we don’t have to see continued closures of live music venues.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
