One of Sydney’s best-known pubs, which has been around for more than a century, has been forced to silence local artists performing live music in its courtyard due to a noise complaint from a neighbour.
The Harold Park Hotel in Glebe has held Sunday afternoon sessions featuring acoustic music for the past six years.
That was until it was asked by Sydney City Council to stop.
Owner William Ryan said the music was low-impact entertainment which had been supported by the local community for years.
“I’ve had thousands and thousands of Facebook posts and tweets and personal letters and phone calls about the support for the music on a Sunday afternoon.
“I’m not talking about playing heavy metal until three in the morning … it’s appropriate low-risk music and I’d like to think that’s … a sensible policy.”
Mark Lenard, 59, said he had been coming to the hotel for about nine years and was disappointed to hear acoustic music had been scrapped.
“I was really surprised because this is a low-key event,” he said.
“It has been a really tough 18 months to two years for pubs for all sorts of reasons and it’s just another nail in the coffin.”
Mark Rutherford, 42, has been travelling from Stanmore to the Harold Park Hotel for the past 10 years and said a lot of younger performers got their start by gigging at the venue.
“There’s a lot of really talented guys and a lot of people turn up to watch them and have a couple of drinks and some food,” he said.
“It was good for the pub and good for the neighbourhood.”
However, a spokesperson for the City of Sydney said the Harold Park Hotel’s conditions of development consent prohibited live entertainment from being staged in the outside courtyard area.
A complaint had been received from a neighbour about noise from the venue, council said.
The complaint was in relation to noise from live entertainment in the courtyard on Sunday nights.
Council’s adviser for live music and performance had been in contact with the pub to discuss amending its development consent to allow live music in the courtyard.
The council said it had not asked the hotel to completely end live entertainment because in the current agreement the venue was allowed to stage live music in any other area of the building.
Source: Siobhan Fogarty, ABC News.
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