Plans to demolish Melbourne venue Festival Hall have angered parts of the music community.
Melbourne City Council has approved plans to demolish building and replace it with two 16-storey apartment towers.
The original Festival Hall was built in in 1913 and opened in 1915 as a sporting venue for boxing and wrestling matches. The original building was destroyed in a fire in 1955. The current building was constructed in time for the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne.
In 1960 general manager Dean Lean Jr started booking music acts for the venue. The Beatles played at Festival Hall on their only Australian tour in 1964.
Festival Hall was the primary music venue in Melbourne in the 60s and 70s before the construction of the building now known as Rod Laver Arena. Its Sydney counter-part, the Sydney Stadium (built in 1908), was demolished in 1970.
As Melbourne’s music culture thrived, more and more buildings were constructed or redeveloped to accommodate the number of events but that also created competition for Festival Hall. The venue has not been upgraded and today is out-dated.
Promoters have not treated Festival Hall as a priority for years preferring to take their business to the more modern Margaret Court Arena, the redeveloped Palais or newer The Plenary. All three venues can accommodate punters in a more comfortable and convenient environment in a similar sized venue.
As a result Festival Hall is underused these days. Only nine music events are currently scheduled between now and May.
26 January, I Am Hardstyle
3 February, Tiesto
6 and 7 February, Macklemore
28 February, Young Thug
21 April, Pure 2018
22 April, Sleeping With Sirens
24 April, Dino Merlin
19 May, Angus & Julia Stone
The demolition of the venue will not impact on the music business. Promoters have already moved on.
As promoters take their business elsewhere it is difficult to justify the business of Festival Hall as an ongoing concern, especially considering that it sits on some of the most valuable land in the city of Melbourne.
From an historic or emotional perspective it will be sad to see Festival Hall go but it makes no sense to keep it standing for sentiment alone.
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