Apprehension over music venue’s sale

The potential sale of a Dunedin music venue could cause “upheaval” in the city’s music scene, an advocate warns.

Music and events space Errick’s, located at the former New New New Brewery in Crawford St, was listed on the property market earlier this month.

Established in late 2023, it is described on its website as “Dunedin’s only purpose-built, mid-sized live music and private event venue”.

Save Dunedin Live Music spokesman David Bennett said Errick’s had played a “major role” in trying to fill the gap of live music venues in the city.

When venues that hosted live music changed hands, it could have a “detrimental impact” on the city’s music scene, Mr Bennett said.

“Not specific to Errick’s, but any place that has built a scene and a community around it, there’s always going to be that kind of upheaval when it changes hands.

“You don’t know what you’re going to get with the new owners … they might turn a music venue into a food pub, that kind of stuff.”

A lot of effort went into running a music venue, which could operate on “extremely thin margins”, Mr Bennett said.

It was also a hard commercial bargain for new owners to take over a venue and try to run it the same way.

“When you do get operators who are willing to take that risk and are willing to do it just for the love of music, then any loss of that kind of stuff is huge and impacts the community.”

Losing any venue that was willing to host live music, especially large events, was “a big hit” for Dunedin.

The listing was another indicator the city needed to keep up the energy in rebuilding its music scene, Mr Bennett said.

“The longer and longer we go without being on the tour map for these larger tours and mid-sized tours, the harder and harder it is to rebuild the audience and the infrastructure in the city around hosting these kinds of events.”

According to the listing, the “premium wedding and events centre” generated more than $1million in turnover in one full year of trading.

It was “priced aggressively to sell” at $350,000.

As well as an events facility, it offered on-site accommodation in the form of two studio rooms and two apartments, and also a new cafe space.

Errick’s did not respond to a request for comment before deadline.

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