FLY BY NIGHT MUSIC FESTIVAL

The Fremantle Fly by Night musicians club in the gorgeous heritage Victoria Hall building is holding the FLY FESTIVAL this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so support our local music industry!

The poster above gives you all the info about who is playing when, so have fun!

Roel Loopers

BLUES AT THE FLY BY NIGHT

Reflection of Victoria Hall by Roel Loopers

I am not sure if the FLY BY NIGHT musician club has opened in their new Fremantle Victoria Hall venue yet, but I got info that they will be having the Gaslight Club new blues club there on Wednesdays from 8pm to 11 pm.

I love good Blues so you’ll be seeing me there on the Wednesdays where I am not a Council meetings as an observer.

If anyone knows any more about how the Fly is going, let me know. They are still waiting for a liquor license I assume.

Roel Loopers

FLY BY NIGHT TO STAY IN FREMANTLE

It is very good news that the Fly by Night musicians club will stay in Fremantle. The City of Fremantle’s Strategic and General Services Committee this evening approved a one year, plus one year, lease of Victoria Hall to the community arts group.

The Fly has been an institution of Freo for nearly 30 years and have strongly supported community groups and schools and they have been an incubator for new musical talent.

As I said at Council, the City of Arts could ill afford to lose another arts organisation after the demise of Kulcha and Deckchair, the FTI leaving town, and the probable loss of the Circus School.

A relatively short lease will show if the Fly by Night can make it work at Victoria Hall but also leaves the option open to move to a better venue should one come available. As Councillor Rachel Pemberton said, it’s a win win for all!

A big thank you for the hard work and great collaboration should go to COF Director Tom Griffiths and his staff and the Fly by Night management who obviously needed to compromise as well.

Roel Loopers

FREO’S FLY BY NIGHT WANTS VICTORIA HALL

The City of Fremantle’s Strategic and General Services Committee will be debating tomorrow evening if Victoria Hall should be leased to the Fly by Night musicians group. The organisation has applied to lease the heritage building after having been evicted from their long-time Artillery Hall home by the National Trust, who leased out the building to Sunset Events.

The decisions will be an interesting one as only a bit over a year ago COF rejected an expression of interest from Clancy’s to make Victoria Hall into a seven day a week cafe, bar and music venue. COF then cited it wanted to self manage the venue, but not much came out of that.

Leasing the hall now to Fly by Night would show again how inconsistent decision making at the City is and one would also have to question how many days/nights the venue would be open to the public under FBN management.

I am all for keeping the Fly in Freo, but maybe leasing out the hall on a need-by basis makes more sense and would make the financial burden on the musicians group a lot less. It would also keep the hall available to community groups and one-off events and might see it used more frequently that way.

Roel Loopers