One of the purest pleasures coming out of lockdown has been the return of live music. In Melbourne, music sits alongside dining and sport as being a key pillar of identity. Getting the chance to stand in a crowd, beer in hand, swaying slightly (Melburnians being famously dance-averse) is important to our lives, and it’s an act that communities can form around.

For live music venues in 2022, this idea of community has never been more important. Pulling a crowd is great, but feeling the support of a neighbourhood, seeing regular faces, and being part of a ‘scene’ is vital to a venue’s success. Through the good times and bad, a community will be there.

If you’re looking to start taking your venue’s relationship with the locals to another level, we’ve got some tips from Juliette Lalli, band booker for the Retreat Hotel, and Alex Gonzalez-Macuer, venue manager for Stay Gold. 

Providing a space for the big acts and the first-timers

Established artists are always great for getting punters through the door, but offering a safe space for emerging artists to play to friends and family is a great way to build a community.

“The Retreat has two stages, so there’s opportunities for people to play their first ever show in the front bar or a free Wednesday night,” says Lalli. “Then we have a 175 capacity band room so we have bigger bands selling out album launches in that room as well.” Having that ability to swing between audience sizes – particularly when there’s support for up-and-coming local acts – means that, no matter what the future holds, there’s a place for live music. 

Stay Gold is a bigger venue, but it’s still capable of hosting acts large and small. “Our capacity is 469,” says Gonzalez-Macuer. “We have a section of the venue that we can close off that blocks out maybe 150 people, so it makes it a little bit more intimate. Especially when there was not a lot of interstate travel, we had a lot of smaller local bands that we were getting in, which was a great thing, and that gave them a platform.”

For Lalli, the interaction of big and small artists – particularly on the same lineup – helps to create a more cohesive music community around the venue. “My job is making connections between different people in the community, so for example booking a bigger headliner for one of our free shows and making sure that there’s at least one really new band on that lineup. Hopefully they’ll interact and create more opportunities for each other.”

Showcasing diversity

Nothing creates a more welcoming community atmosphere than equal representation. The Retreat’s community is only gaining strength as it becomes more inclusive, and it owes a lot to the venue’s clear booking policy. “We have a recommendation for all shows that we have at least one non-male member but preferably more on all lineups,” Lalli says. “We ask people to do a bit of research in their communities and prioritise people of colour and femme/non-binary people on their lineups.” 

Being inclusive means not just putting diverse bands on stage, but attracting a community of people that feel comfortable in the venue, and want to come back. “We want to be a place where everyone can go and see the bands on stage and be like ‘I feel comfy here,’” Lalli says. “It just makes the music community a better thing to be part of, when you feel like someone like you is being represented on the stage.”

Being part of the neighbourhood

For Stay Gold, part of the venue’s ongoing success has been maintaining close ties with its home suburb of Brunswick. Being an active part of events like community festivals, fundraisers and Christmas celebrations means forging a place in the heart of locals. “We have the Sydney Road festival which incorporates all the businesses down Sydney Road and everyone has a big party and you can just sense that community vibe,” says Gonzalez-Macuer. “We also do displays that artists from Brunswick show off on our windows. Every Christmas we get a notice from Moreland council and they get an artist in and they do their painting live, which usually takes about six hours.”

Even when it comes to music events, supporting the neighbourhood community can bring in a new crowd or solidify an old one. “We have these two guys that come in, and every year we do a benefit show with them to raise money for Beyond Blue,” says Gonzalez-Macuer. “The amount of community in Brunswick that come in and donate gifts that we can auction off is insane.”

More than just live music

Gigs are the lifeblood of music venues, but with the big shows generally skewed towards the weekend, both Stay Gold and the Retreat Hotel find success offering the community a reason to pop in when bands aren’t playing. Though Stay Gold mostly showcases heavier styles of live music, they also offer a pop-up pizza shop called Ollie’s, weekly trivia and a few different music-themed nights. “We have DJ nights after the bands play,” Gonzalez-Macuer says. “We have emo nights and sometimes we have Taylor Swift nights and those are just full of young, enthusiastic people.” 

At the Retreat, entertainment is provided every night of the week, whether it’s a band or something else entirely. “Something that we’ve always tried to push for is trying to engage a whole bunch of different communities,” Lalli says. “We have this great event series organised in collaboration with a company called Deadly Events and we have a first nations open mic night every Tuesday night. We’ve got pub trivia one night and we’ve just started a live podcast series on Monday. The owners are really open to lots of fun ideas and looking to engage the community in all sorts of different ways.”

Feeling part of a community is an important part of social connection and local venues that foster relationships with their neighbours, and support local initiatives, fuel this. Whether you have a live music venue already in use, or an empty space waiting to be filled, start thinking about how you can reach out to your local communities and engage with them in meaningful ways. Here are some ideas to get you started!