Plot twist, everybody, Perth is actually the latest Australian city to get a brand new live music venue. And what’s more, it’s actually part of an incredible new youth complex that includes a large-capacity venue, a skate park, and more.
As The Music reports, the facility is called Stompbox and is set to open in Osborne Park early next year. The project has already received $3 million in funding from local businesses and hopes to raise more funds via a Kickstarter campaign.
According to the Stompbox Perth Facebook page, in addition to the live music space, the precinct will include a big air foam pit, a sport climbing area, a dance and fitness studio, a recording studio, a parkour course, a skate park, and a creative studio.
The Music notes that the precinct will take up some 14,000 sqm, occupying the space on which the area’s Schweppes complex formerly stood. Live music will take place outdoors in the pop-up skate park area, with the park’s ramps combining to create a stage.
“You could hold concerts there for 800 – 1000 people,” project leader Richard Kettle told The Music. “I’m really keen to spend a bit of time on pushing the music side of things, because it’s a key feature of why I wanted to do the whole thing.”
Kettle will be announcing the details of the Kickstarter in the coming weeks and according to the Stirling Times, he hopes to raise a total of $6 million. Speaking to the Times, Kettle explained how he first thought of the idea.
“I was filming tricks for my kids at the skate park and started thinking about the possibilities of built-in video and multimedia integration, and the concept really took hold from there,” he told the outlet.
“The precinct will provide a fantastic array of opportunities for young people to express themselves but for me it is a focus on membership, development, maturity and self-governance that I hope has the biggest potential influence on our young people.”
Kettle sees a future for Stompbox Perth as a venue for Olympic and international media events, as well as state and national competitions for skateboarding, BMX, parkour, free-running, sport climbing, and trampolining.
“It also offers a diverse range of creative opportunities with recording studios, spray painting booths, dance studios, multimedia labs and gaming,” he said. Keep an eye out for the Kickstarter campaign launching soon.
