Legendary Live Music Venue The Hopetoun Will Reopen

For 20 years iconic Surry Hills corner pub The Hopetoun was the stomping ground for both up-and-coming Sydney bands and international acts looking for an intimate venue. Everyone from the Chemical Brothers to You Am I, Paul Kelly and Jet played in the tiny pub before the City of Sydney Council literally chained its doors shut in 2009. Now, the Daily Telegraph reports, the Hoey will reopen.

Owner Evangelos Patakas, who bought the pub in 1997 for a report $1.5 million and ran it until it closed due to unpaid fines and violating noise restrictions, has confirmed to the paper he is looking to reopen next year. Unfortunately those same noise restrictions mean the venue can’t host live music.

The grungy pub, which has sat boarded up on the corner of Bourke and Foveaux streets in Surry Hills, was one of the last of Sydney’s classic live music venues to close. It was known for giving up-and-coming musicians a space to perform (as well as employing many of them behind the bar), and its slipshod approach to noise restrictions and security.

In 2016 there were rumours the pub had been sold and would reopen as a live music venue, but Patakas later dismissed that possibility, with lawyers for Patakas telling the Daily Telegraph that the news was unfounded.

There’s been no confirmation of when the venue will reopen.