Nearly two years on from its last full-scale concert, iconic Sydney music venue Selina’s will officially reopen later this month, hosting a special show co-headlined by The Buoys, Teenage Joans, Eliza & The Delusionals and STUMPS.
The triple j-presented gig will go down at 8pm on Monday April 24 (Anzac Day eve), with each of the bands’ set times being decided on the night by a spinning wheel. Tickets are on sale now – find them here.
It’ll mark the first live band performance held at Selina’s since June 11, 2021, when Hockey Dad performed with Good Lekker and Totty. Several shows had been booked into the first quarter of 2022 – including gigs headlined by The Chats and Dune Rats – however none of these appear to have gone ahead. The latter was cancelled just hours out from doors opening after a flood caused significant damage to the venue.
The venue stopped posting regular updates on social media last June (after a DJ set performed by Touch Sensitive), signalling its ultimate closure. It’d been incoming for some time: in August of 2021, it was reported that the venue would be demolished, pending local council approval for the Coogee Bay Hotel – where Selina’s operated – to redevelop the space into an extension of the hotel itself.
The move drew vocal pushback from the local community – including two Labor MPs – given the venue’s cultural importance: it opened amid the golden age of Australian hard-rock in the 1970s, and over the decades since, hosted such iconic bands as the Sex Pistols, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Cold Chisel and The Killers.
Thankfully, the saga ended with Selina’s surviving, and since the middle of last year has undergone significant renovations with several major upgrades to the performance space and its facilities. The room can now hold up to 1,750 punters (though its capacity can be scaled down to 400) and among other additions, has been fitted with new audio-visual production equipment, as well as an LED wall for the back of the stage.
At the time of writing, this newly announced gig is the only one announced to be going ahead – that shouldn’t be the case for long, though, as the venue is currently scouting for bookings. It’s now under the management of hospitality company C-INC, while it remains situated on the premises of the Coogee Bay Hotel.
News just in 🚨 We're back! After a wild and unpredictable few years, we're beyond excited to open our doors to a whole…
Posted by Selina's Sydney on Monday, April 3, 2023
In a formal statement (per Travel Weekly), David Gregory – the hotel’s general manager – said he and his team “are thrilled to reactivate live entertainment at Selina’s”, with their aim being “to contribute towards building a strong entertainment and events precinct within the eastern suburbs of Sydney”.
He added: “We’re proud to offer a premium venue addition to Australia’s entertainment and events industry. We hope that Selina’s contributes to strengthening the live economy and nurtures talent by providing a flexible space with carefully planned facilities and a highly skilled team, dedicated to making performers, producers and patrons time at the venue the best that it can be.
“Selina’s activation is a win for the wider events and entertainment industry, artists, creators and fans across the city and beyond.”