This Easter one of the Sunshine Coast's leading live music venues Solbar is celebrating seven years since it opened its doors.
Solbar will be throwing a killer birthday party to honour their milestone that will feature performances from Jebediah, Polish Club (click here to read our recent interview with the band), The Tommyhawks and Fragile Animals.
With seven years of wicked gigs, amazing acts and endless shenanigans, we asked the Solbar crew to share some of their favourite memories since that first day all those years ago.
1. We'd be crazy not to include opening night on this list.
The memories may be a little fuzzy now but it was a cracker of a night. We had Bonjah headlining and the energy in that room was electric. A heaving crowd of stoked people and a bar-full of even more-stoked team members; Ocean Street was changing.2. On our first birthday, a year on, we threw an epic party.
That was the first Ocean Street World Festival, the whole street was alive and packed with revellers and the day finished up with Sticky Fingers' first show at Solbar. It felt like the whole Sunny Coast were celebrating with us, all day long.3. Donovan Frankenreiter becomes the first international act to play Solbar. (Twice!)
Can't forget our first major Australian act either: Wolfmother – booked on Thursday, sold-out Saturday and played Sunday, yew! That was a big second year.4. Bearfoot's first jam on the open mic stage.
It felt like most of the crew were there either working or just to hang, and we were all up and dancing; even back then the band were so catchy and fun and from that moment they've had a devout following.It's crazy to think about how far they've come and how their sound has flourished since then.
5. Fast forward another two years.
We'd spent the entire week, right up to the final few hours of Easter Thursday, moving the whole venue across the street into our current digs. That was hectic, and that Sunday was easily the biggest Ocean Street World Festival yet.First week in a new venue, new team, new bar, even a restaurant addition, plus that week we had Cloud Control, Thirsty Merc and Ash Grunwald play – it was huge. We still sweat just thinking about it, but far out we had a ball.
