Award winning Sunshine Coast live music and hospitality precinct closes

Queensland's recovering music industry has been dealt a major blow with NightQuarter, the Sunshine Coast's largest live music venue, suddenly announcing its closure.

Opened in November 2020, NightQuarter co-owner Michelle Christoe said the Birtinya entertainment precinct fell prey to slow economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, floods and the rising cost of living.

In a statement, Christou explained "we are heartbroken.

"We've sold our home and put it towards the business to assist through this time.

"However, the attendance rates for live music events and night markets have been volatile coming out of COVID and we've run out of runway."

Christoe, and co-owner Ian Van der Woude, had operated a similar venue on the Gold Coast from 2015 to 2019.

The venue was shut down by Queensland Health for being in breach of COVID-19 restrictions in June last year, with a sold out concert by San Cisco cancelled by Queensland Health with less than 24 hours notice.

Christoe continued "in hindsight, we could have done better to manage our 'crowds', but we did our best.

"We still feel like we were unfairly targeted … that incident has been a shadow over us ever since."

The Omicron wave at the end of 2021 resulted in 11 concerts being cancelled at the venue.

Christoe added "one of the events that we did host was a Triple J most played artist in January that had a 60% non-attendance rate.

"This was a terrible outcome for everyone from the customers to the artist and crew, but particularly for the venue that makes income from food and beverage sales made during concerts."

Christoe said the venue commissioned a study by the University of the Sunshine Coast to "investigate consumer confidence and purchasing behaviour on the Sunshine Coast", which showed lack of transport, inflation and the rising cost of living acted as a barrier to crowds.

Sunshine Coast Music Industry Alliance academic chair Andy Ward said it was a devastating blow to the local music sector and would mean job losses.

Ward told the ABC "in a study we did earlier in the year, we found the Sunshine Coast has the highest density of working musicians in any region in Australia.

Dr Ward, who is also a lecturer in creative industries at University of the Sunshine Coast, said audiences needed to be educated about the impacts of buying tickets at the last minute.

"What we're seeing now is people are waiting and holding off to see whether or not the show's going to be cancelled."

Images: An event at Nightquarter in Birtinya (top) and and the venue's co-owners Ian Van der Woude and Michelle Christoe (below). Credit: NightQuarter.