Goya Dmytryshchak
Footscray has saved its pride – literally.
Last week, the Pride of our Footscray community bar, owned by 200 part-owners who in 2017 bought $500 shares to establish the LGBTIQA+ venue, reopened for the first time since March 14.
Licensee or ‘chief bar officer’ Mathew O’Keefe said he worked 19 hours straight and “almost had to learn to pour a beer again”.
“I think a lot of us venue owners preparing would be doing similar days,” he said.
“There’s much to do because we had to get set up and you’re changing your business – like, we’ve gone from a nightclub to a cabaret style table-service offering.
”But everybody’s so grateful to be reopening.”
The community-owned bar initially survived on community donations, online drag shows and Pride T-shirts, before becoming one of a few local venues awarded an $80,000 state government live music venues grant.
Mr O’Keefe credited this with keeping the venue alive and 17 staff on the books.
“We didn’t get a chance to reopen mid-year because the rules kept changing and we kept on getting shut down before we could reopen again,” he said.
”Last [Wednesday] night was our first night for seven and a half months.
“We were very supportive of the lockdown for the health impacts.
“We were just glad that the government lived up to its part of the deal and then gave us some money to survive.
“Pride of our Footscray has got a wonderful community of people around it and they were giving us little donations or buying our hats or they were buying our T-shirts or they were playing a little online bingo game that we were streaming with the drag queens every couple of weeks.
“We were able to survive for six months with our Pride of our Footscray community helping us, but after six months we were out of money and the Andrews government with the live music grant saved us.”
Unlike some live music venues that “sometimes had a reputation for being a bit blokey”, Mr O’Keefe said Pride had drag queens introducing punk, rock and indie musicians while performing short acts in between.
“It’s a very unusual live music experience and we had to say why it was worth saving,” he said.
“They didn’t give every live music venue money: you had to prove why you were worth saving.
“Pride is overwhelmingly grateful for all the support and is thrilled to now be welcoming back locals and visitors alike.”
