Local hip-hop artists Caelwhip and Notorious Nix prepare to support national touring act Illy outside Solbar. Photo: Ben Russoniello.

The Maroochydore venue will shut after two decades as one of the region’s key touring rooms.

Solbar has announced it will permanently close, removing one of the Sunshine Coast’s primary mid-capacity live music venues and leaving a noticeable gap in the region’s touring circuit.

A packed room during Trophy Eyes at Solbar in 2025. The venue regularly hosted national touring acts between small band rooms and capital-city theatres. Photo: Marc Roberts

Solbar became a regular stop on the Australian touring circuit. Its poster-covered walls and band-stickered bathrooms reflect the artists who passed through and built audiences along the way.

Established in Coolum in 2001, before moving to Ocean Street, Solbar filled a rarely noticed but critical role for more than two decades. It sat between grassroots band rooms and theatres, often the difference between a tour stopping on the Sunshine Coast or passing it by.

The venue tier that determines touring routes

For touring artists, venues of this size are not interchangeable. They function as testing grounds. A band that can draw a crowd in a mid-tier regional room can justify returning, growing, and eventually moving into larger markets. Without that step, routing often jumps straight to Brisbane.

Across its lifespan the venue hosted weekly gigs, open mic nights and national touring acts, and in 2023 it was awarded Best Regional Venue in Queensland at the Queensland Music Awards for the third time.

Connor Hanson, lead singer of Chamber Lane and Phil and the Blanks (pictured), said the venue’s reliability made it central to the local touring circuit, having played the room more than 30 times.

“One of the standout things about Solbar was the consistency, from the production quality to the way you were treated like family the moment you walked through the door,” Connor said.

“Our first Phil and the Blanks show with Sly Withers was terrifying, but Solbar felt like home. It gave me comfort during the uncomfortable.”

He said the loss leaves a lasting impact on local artists.

“Without Solbar there’s a devastating hole in the Sunshine Coast music scene. If a place like that can disappear, nowhere feels guaranteed.”

But the significance of the closure sits less in nostalgia and more in what it changes structurally.

Why mid-size rooms matter on the Sunshine Coast

The Sunshine Coast has long operated on a fragile touring ladder: small community spaces at one end, theatres at the other, and only a handful of rooms bridging the gap. When a middle step disappears, tours rarely redistribute evenly, they consolidate.

ABC Sunshine Coast broadcaster and Sunshine Coast Music Industry Collective (SCMIC) vice-chair Sarah Howells (pictured) said the closure reduces opportunities across every level of the scene, from first performances to touring shows.

“It is absolutely heartbreaking that Solbar is closing. For two decades it has been an iconic venue on the Sunshine Coast. Ask anyone about venues on the coast and it’s one of the first ones they will mention. It’s known right across Australia.

“I’m so sad for the up-and-coming artists who jumped onstage at the open mic nights on Wednesdays (the longest running one on the coast!), the young artists getting their first gig in the front bar, the touring artists that packed out the band room, and the huge number of punters who got to see live music there. This is a huge loss for the Sunshine Coast and means fewer opportunities for our local artists to play live.”

Without a developmental venue tier, artists often bypass regional stops entirely rather than downscale production.

A shrinking pathway for artists

Recent venue losses in the region have reinforced that pattern. The Station closed on January 2, removing one of the Coast’s only large-scale live rooms, while Solbar now removes a developmental mid-tier space. Together they compress the pathway available to both emerging and mid-level Australian artists.

Solbar’s closure comes amid mounting challenges for the live music industry across Queensland. Rising operating costs, changing audience behaviour and broader economic pressures have made conditions increasingly difficult for venues to survive.

Industry figures have described a “perfect storm” driven by inflation, rising costs and declining attendance. These pressures have placed significant strain on independent venues, many of which act as launching pads for emerging artists.

“For 15 years, we have worked hard at nurturing artists, from sound engineers and bar managers to chefs and more, and couldn’t be more proud of our place in the local community and the music industry at large. To everyone that supported us back, thank you,” said Solbar Entertainment Manager Melissa O’Bryan (pictured front centre).

The connection between the venues also extends beyond programming. The Station owner Chris Hignett (pictured back right), who was a member of SCMIC until his venue closed, operated within the same local industry network as O’Bryan, who currently chairs the collective. The closures therefore affect not only stages, but the coordination structure supporting touring activity across the region.

For younger acts especially, these rooms determine career trajectory. They are where a band learns whether audiences exist outside capital cities. Without them, the Coast risks becoming a listening market rather than a touring one.

The role Solbar played in artist development

That developmental step wasn’t theoretical. Early performances at the venue formed part of the growth pathway for acts including The Chats and Betty Taylor (performing last year at Bluff Fest by Dameeka Middleton). Spaces like this allow bands to discover whether an audience exists beyond their hometown before committing to wider touring.

Solbar co-founder Dimitris Limnatitis said the venue was created from “a genuine passion for live music” and that the team had watched artists take early steps on its stage before moving to larger platforms. That progression, from first regional headline to sustained touring, is precisely the function the venue filled.

While the venue played a structural role in the touring circuit, staff say its meaning extended beyond logistics.

“Solbar has always been more than just a venue,” said Katie Mateus, Solbar Marketing Manager. “It has been a home, a family, and a place where countless memories were made. Many of our staff have dedicated over a decade of their lives to this space and the reluctant decision to close has been heartbreaking.”

What happens next for the Sunshine Coast scene

Solbar Maroochydore will host a final farewell event on February 28 featuring local performers connected to its history.

What replaces the space, and whether the Coast regains a comparable mid-tier room, will determine if touring continues to grow locally or increasingly passes the region by.

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Scene foundation
Read the Nambour Live Music Guide.

Part of the local circuit
Read the Caloundra live music scene.

Looking for late-night touring venues?
Explore the Maroochydore live music guide.

Across the whole region
Browse the Sunshine Coast live music venues guides.