Fortitude Valley | Inside Brisbane’s Iconic Music Venue
Author // Shannon Edwards for Place New Farm
One of Brisbane’s most iconic (and oldest) music venues is celebrating its 25th birthday this year!
Located in Fortitude Valley, The Zoo has been celebrating hosting live music for decades.
From well-known touring acts to smaller scale local bands, The Zoo prides itself on supporting the Aussie music scene.
Combining this pride with passion is new owner of the live music venue, Pixie Weyand.
With a lifelong love for the music industry, recalling family jam-sessions as a child, Pixie is continuing The Zoo legacy and making it bigger and better.
What makes The Zoo so unique?
What’s so special about The Zoo is the passion it’s been built on and the passion of everyone working behind the scenes.
The past owner of The Zoo before myself (Pixie) was so incredibly passionate about live music and wanted to make a difference to the Australian music scene.
Being one of the only live music venues in Brisbane for a long time, The Zoo became a hub for the industry.
The venue itself has a lot of history. In the 25 years that its been up and running some really significant bands played their first shows here, one of them being Powderfinger.
The people who have begun their music journey here at The Zoo have gone on to do some amazing things.
The Zoo isn’t just about larger scale performers and touring acts, it’s about local acts and artists.
To us, it’s really important to give those local acts the opportunity to show what they can do and share their music with Australia in a great venue.
Is this something you’ve always wanted to be involved with?
Music has been a big part since I was a kid. My dad was a ‘muso’ so I was brought up in a very musical household.
I remember having jam-sessions in the living room and the backyard.
I think it was a matter of going on the journey and finding where I belonged in the music industry.
My role here comes from a place of love and a place of passion. I think it’s really important to have that love for your career.
In a way I feel that I’m in a position of privilege and I need to use that privilege to do everything I can to have a positive impact on the music scene.
What’s most rewarding for you, being the owner of The Zoo?
It’s such a nice feeling when people come into the venue who have been coming here for years.
As a new owner, it’s nice to hear the positive feedback from regulars on the small changes we’ve made here.
I feel privileged to be a part of something that’s been running successfully for so long and feel lucky that I get to add to that.
It’s a really special and an iconic space in Brisbane so I feel really proud.
When we have big sell-out shows here - it’s such a great feeling to look around and see everyone have a great time.
Tell us a bit about your Feed Music?
Feed Music started a few years ago with the purpose of providing free food for touring musicians.
Feed Music will be rolling out on a national level this year at BIGSOUND.
We’ve got some great key partners involved so we’re excited about that.
It’s my hope that this revolutionises the way that bands tour. I think it’s important as it takes a lot of financial stress away from the band as well as mental wellbeing issues through supporting the bands with food, which helps their mental capacity.