After the chaos at Fed Square forced their free all-ages show to be cancelled, Amyl and The Sniffers didn’t disappear for the night.
Instead, they turned one of the most frustrating moments of their career into something Melbourne’s music community will be talking about for years.
What started as disappointment in the CBD quickly became a spontaneous celebration across the city, as the band redirected their entire performance fee into bar tabs at seven small venues. Within hours of the cancellation, thousands of fans shifted from Fed Square to pubs across Carlton, Fitzroy and the CBD after the band announced they were putting $5,000 behind the bar at each one.
The backstory is now well known. Their free gig was cancelled just minutes before showtime after a barrier at the front of the crowd collapsed. The band had earlier expressed anger backstage, a reaction they’ve now clarified as they came to understand how the breach unfolded. Full details of the cancellation can be read in our original story Free Amyl And The Sniffers Show Shut Down At Fed Square After Crowd Breaches Barricades.
Watch: Crowd push through barricade before cancellation
Later that night, Amy Taylor fronted the camera with a calmer, more reflective message, addressing the crowd directly.
“Okay, go. Hello, Fed Square and everybody who came to show up. We’re so f**ing sorry that we couldn’t play. We genuinely feel really bad, like from the gut, from everything. It sucks to not be able to play in our hometown for free. We’re not dogging you. It’s because somebody, a bunch of people, rushed the fucking barriers and so it wasn’t safe. Especially because it was all ages. We just can’t have that. We don’t want anyone having a sh*t time.
“So what we’re doing is using our fee to go back to some local venues. Have a drink on us in the AC/DC fashion. 5K at the bar at Last Chance, The Tote, Labour in Vain, Hell’s Kitchen, The Curtin, Cherry Bar and Old Bar. So there’s a $5,000 tab on each of those venues. Have a drink on us. We’re so sorry. We really wanted to play. I was chucking a tantrum like no tomorrow. You can imagine it. And I’m so sorry. Just have some fun tonight and I’m glad you got to see Public Figures.”
Watch: Amyl and the Sniffers shout Melbourne
The ABC later confirmed the full list: The Tote, The Old Bar, The Curtin, Labour in Vain, Hell’s Kitchen, Last Chance Rock and Roll Bar and Cherry Bar. That’s $35,000 in total, injected straight into the grassroots venues where the band first cut their teeth. Staff across the bars described the gesture as wild, unprecedented and deeply appreciated at a time when the live music scene is under financial pressure. Several of the bars ran their tabs dry in minutes.
Fans fanned out across the venues, many arriving still frustrated from the Fed Square shutdown, only to find a completely different vibe once they walked through the doors. At The Old Bar, patrons were lining up outside after spotting the announcement on Instagram. Over at The Curtin, cheers broke out the moment the news hit the bar. Meanwhile at Labour in Vain, staff said the energy turned from disappointment to celebration almost instantly.
Some punters described the night as a cultural moment, the kind of story that will grow in legend as more people claim they were there for “the night Amyl shouted Melbourne.”
What could have been a sour ending instead became something that feels uniquely Melbourne: a band giving back to the rooms that built them and a community ready to rally behind them when things go sideways.
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