How Marrickville gets its Qirkz back
It’s an underground institution in the inner west, and its unique reputation has led to an outpouring of support – hundreds have written to Marrickville Council in support of an application to reopen iconic Marrickville music venue, Qirkz.
That’s according to owner of Qirkz and lead singer of award-winning gypsy jazz band Monsieur Camembert, Yaron Hallis.
“Every city has to have an underground music scene because really important art bubbles up from that,” Mr Hallis said.
Established in a warehouse space, Qirkz was shut down due to state fire regulations in March last year.
But moves have been afoot for the venue to re-open, with Mr Hallis commenting the current best-case scenario would see Qirkz back in business within six months.
“It’s a question of what hoops we’re going to have to jump through – what we’re going to have to do for them to actually let it go ahead,” he said. “It can be something that is, loosely speaking, within the realm of affordability; or alternatively, they can just make it so prohibitive there’s no way we’ll ever be able to do it.
“All will be revealed over the next few weeks.”
Since Qirkz’s forced closure, Hallis has opened nearby music venue Camelot Lounge, which lives up to its name. “It’s basically just camels everywhere,” he said. “My old house actually had a camel room, and every inch of it was either camel paintings, or sculptures, or toys.”
A lack of space at Qirkz meant the collection had lived in boxes, but the new venue has allowed him to indulge his passion. “We’ve got two life-size ones and flying camels all around the room,” he said.
The extensive collection has gained the attention of ABC TV’s Collectors and Channel Seven’s Today Tonight.
With the prospective re-opening of Qirkz, Hallis hopes to inspire the creation of a live music precinct with venues within a short walk from one another, incorporating existing venues such as the Red Rattler and Factory Theatre.
“There’s not a lot of places in Sydney where you can go from one gig to another gig within a few metres, the way you can in other cities,” he said.
He also plans to revamp Qirkz with permanent and temporary exhibitions of local art.
But despite his extensive efforts establishing the venues, Hallis says being frontman of Monsieur Camembert is still his main occupation.
“[At Camelot] the other night, we cut up our new set list… and we got the audience to pick our set list for us, and completely randomise the whole experience. It became the silliest session. We’d stuff up an ending, and do it three or four times before we nailed it,” he said.
“A multi-generational, friendly music-focused environment has been something that we’ve felt really passionate about continuing, and have been able to do at this new space.”
