About seven years ago after a spectacularly bad year for business, it wasn’t just us, all small business had a rough year that year, we wrote an open letter to our community to let them know that things were tough, and we were taking the summer holidays to consider if we should reopen the venues or not. The intent of the letter wasn’t to seek support or compensation, rather to make sure that we were being transparent, and to remind Sydney audiences that even our most loved venues who have been around forever are not guaranteed. We need to patron them and support them if we want to ensure that they remain open. Of course this was many years ago and what our sector and world is experiencing now is completely different but in many ways the responses have been the same.

During this crisis we have seen our community rally behind our artists and our venues, those who are fortunate to still be employed are supporting all they can through paid streaming, patreon campaigns and fundraisers, and we have been thinking about what we will need to do to ensure that we can re-open once it is safe to do so.
Seven years ago, after our letter was published, many fans of 505 wrote to us to say they would happily support the venue but that they couldn’t get to gigs regularly anymore or were no longer in town. So we created the 505 Membership Program. A member benefit program that enables lovers of 505 to access discounts and special offers in return for a $10 monthly subscription. The membership fee goes directly to 505 to support our work and provide a regular income to the organisation during irregular times. Our group of amazing members has ebbed and flowed over the years but we have a firm crew of long-term members and a steady flow of new ones.

We are fortunate enough to currently have rental relief provided by the building trustees of 5 Eliza, but all other overheads are still fixed and upfront costs that we would normally write off across numerous productions across the year have already been paid with no line of sight to recouping them. Our income literally ceased over night. Indi theatres’ futures and financial sustainability are sketchy under the most usual operating conditions, this crisis has left us all reeling, and with no ability to generate any income derived from face to face trading we need to pull all the levers we can to get some cash flowing in to ensure that we will be here after this crisis passes.

We know times are tough for everyone but if you can afford $10 a month, and you love all things 505, we would love to welcome you into the member fold. Your support would be gratefully received and is immensely needed at this unprecedented time.

Not only will you be supporting all of our work and ensuring the future of the venue but when we get back to business you will be able to access terrific benefits and get that warm fuzzy feeling that your support directly makes our activity possible.

Over the past 10 years 505 has presented close to 3000 gigs and productions, paid over $2.2million dollars in artist fees and welcomed over 260,000 people to shows. We still remain entirely artist run and self-funded receiving no Government subsidy. We provide a home for the creation of new Australian theatre works and the best contemporary music.

If you are and keen to support you can read all about our membership program and sign up here

All our best
Kerri and Cameron
Founding Directors- 505