Sydney live music venue Mary’s Underground will be closing its doors permanently at the end of its winter season. Venue owners Jake Smyth and Kenny Graham made the announcement in a statement titled ‘The Final Chapter‘ posted to the venue’s website on Friday.
Mary’s Underground. Photo courtesy of Mary’s
“It will come as no surprise that this is ultimately due to financial reasons and the many headwinds the live music industry currently faces, especially for venues under 500 capacity,” they wrote.
“Declining bar sales, coupled with increasing costs and sky-high Sydney land values does not make a recipe for success.”
Mary’s took over the Circular Quay location in 2018 from iconic Sydney jazz locale The Basement, which was Sydney’s oldest licenced music venue until its closure. Established in 1973, The Basement hosted performances from internationally acclaimed artists including Herbie Hancock, Prince and Dizzy Gillespie.
Satu Vänskä performing at Mary’s Underground in 2023. Photo supplied.
Since taking over in 2019, Mary’s Underground has hosted more than 1,000 shows and 3,000 artists and sold over 150,000 tickets, its operators noted. It has featured artists including Lorde, New York-based experimental rockers YHWH Nailgun and the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Satu and the Beyond.
The operators of Mary’s Underground also run Liberty Hall, a live music venue located in Moore Park’s Entertainment Quarter and Mary’s in Newtown. They also owned the Paddington pub The Unicorn until 2024.
The venue joins a growing list of significant Sydney venues, festivals and music studio spaces that have shuttered due to increasing financial pressures, including insurance costs, soaring rent and consumers cutting back on drink and ticket purchases.
Oxford Street’s Stonewall Hotel entered voluntary administration in March after 28 years of operation and, after relaunching in The Abercrombie Hotel in Chippendale, following a closure in 2020, Bar Freda’s announced its second closure in February this year.
NSW-based festivals Byron Bay Bluesfest and SXSW Sydney both called it quits this year, and Marrickville’s Monster Mouse Studios, an arts venue that hosted a space for rehearsals and performances, also announced its closure in March.
“We tried to meet regulations, but compliance and true creative action are inherently incompatible,” the venue wrote in an Instagram post.
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