Inflated insurance costs for live music venues claim another victim as Badlands Bar announces closure – PerthNow

The State’s peak body for live music venues says it still doesn’t know why insurance costs are soaring as another Perth establishment has been forced to shut its doors.

Badlands Bar in Perth city cited exorbitant insurance costs when it broke the news to revellers that it would have to close in December.

“For the past 12 months Badlands has been on the receiving end of a whopping 10-fold increase in our public liability insurance premiums despite never having made a claim before,” the venue’s management said in a social media statement.

“This was the only insurance coverage we were able to obtain to ensure the venue could continue to operate.”

Management called it a “known but rarely spoken about” dilemma affecting live music venues across the country.

For seven years the Aberdeen Street late-night bar has been a drawcard for some of the biggest names in local music, including Perth’s own Spacey Jane and Australian favourites Kisschasy.

For musicians such as Leon Todorovich from hard rock trio Ragdoll, the decline in local live music venues will be a hit to the industry.

“Primarily where an individual band might not be able to fill up a room but you can put together a local mini-festival — or there’s a national act that comes through where you end up with a few support acts,” he said.

“(Badlands Bar) is sort of one of the last places where you could do something like that.”

The lead guitarist said it was obvious the climate of live music was rapidly changing as venue options dwindled across Perth.

“There are certainly fewer places to play,” he said.

“There’s also fewer people coming out in the past 10 years. You’re no longer competing with three or four shows on the same night, you’re also competing with Netflix, you’re competing with streaming shows.

“Live music is now one of maybe 10 things you can choose to do on any given night.”

West Australian Music executive director Livia Carre said Badlands’ closure would be a great loss for WA’s contemporary music community. She said the venue wasn’t alone in a struggling industry.

“Badlands is the third live music venue to fall victim to the post-COVID environment of increasing operational costs and public liability insurance in under 12 months,” she said.

“This follows the closures of The Aardvark in Fremantle and The Sewing Room in Perth.”

Ms Carre said there was no clear reason about why costs were rapidly increasing.

“We still don’t have an answer as to why insurers have dramatically increased the public liability premiums for live music venues,” she said.

“This is not just a WA issue but is happening right across the country and has become a hot topic in our national conversations.”

Other popular venues across Perth are facing a similar dilemma.

Night Owl Entertainment Group strategic partnerships director Jeff Halley said the significant expense was detrimental to the business’s financial sustainability.

The entertainment group runs multiple venues across Perth and Fremantle, including clubs Amplifier, Magnet House and Metropolis Fremantle.

“Like Badlands, our venues have had to endure much public liability insurance premiums over the past 18 months,” he said.

“This has seen insurance across Amplifier and Magnet House in Perth, for example, rise from around $50,000 up to a now whopping $100,000.”

Mr Halley said they had been hit by a double whammy of increased costs and a reduced choice of insurance providers.

“It’s getting very hard to find insurers wanting to cover our venues,” he said.

“We used to have half a dozen underwriters quote … this is now down to one.”

Freo.Social managing director James Legge said while the southern suburbs venue had seen trade pick up post-COVID, insurance costs still had to be mitigated.

“We have worked closely with our insurance brokers to limit premium increases but they have risen significantly over the last few years, which we have had to absorb,” he said.

“This is a massive increase (affecting) the live music sector throughout Australia.

“It’s very important that the live music sector works closely with insurance bodies and Government to try mitigate this issue so we don’t have to see continued closures of live music venues.”

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