RIP Beating Heart
7-9-13
Tonight will be a sad night for Hong Kong. Beating Heart will close its doors for the last time at its Sai Ying Pun location. It’s a sad thing because Beating Heart had become the home to many independent artists in HK and had recently become a symbol of the rising art scene in the area. As an artist who had used the venue before I was quite impressed with Craig and his love for the artists who performed on his stage. He wanted them taken care of. He wanted their shows to be great. He allowed for tech rehearsals. He took cuts of the door rather than asking for huge upfronts like other establishments and you were allowed to take your half of the take home on the night.
As many artists in town know, outfits like HK Ticketing and URBTIX hold onto your money for weeks or even months at a time. Craig was awesome and trusted his artists to bring in the audience.
The truly sad thing about the end of Beating Heart is that it all comes down to bureaucracy. It’s not a lack of audience or a lack of interest in the venue that’s closing the doors but rather a landlord and neighbors who are forcing a new icon in HK’s music and theatre scene to shut its doors. It’s tragic to see another great venue in HK bite the dust over something so silly. We asked Craig for a short play by play of what exactly happened and this is what he wrote us:
“We had an acoustic music/wine tasting event a few months ago.
Someone in the building (we believe a new neighbour on our floor) complained to the police saying we were running a Karaoke venue & selling alcohol.
The police came to visit/talk to us re alcohol. At no time had we been selling alcohol, however Becks had sponsored free beer for a number of events. We were under the illusion this was okay. Police told us it was not. We stopped all sponsored alcohol events.
The police took it upon themselves to contact and meet with our landlord. After which the landlord said he would not be renewing the lease etc citing concerns about lack of entertainment license, proximity to the Chinese Representative office!
At all times the police were polite/civil. They even said they were supportive of cultural activities in the Western district. That said we still have this uneasy feeling that the discussions with the landlord may have had a different tone...
We have had a couple of visits from the police in the last month or so (squads of 3-5 plain clothed badged police folk). All very low key... The main questions they ask me are: am I selling alcohol, am I renewing the lease or not...
So we will probably look for a building in the future which is 'properly' zoned so we can get an alcohol license... then the emphasis will become drinking over art so we can pay the 5-10 fold increase in rent!!”
This weekend will be last performances at Beating Heart’s Sai Ying Pun location. Great local bands from Bella Electra to the David Bowie Knives will be turning out to play a swan song for Craig and the Beating Heart team. We hope to see Beating Heart return in the future like the Phoenix. A bigger, better, stronger reincarnation that can stand strong against the wave of stupid landlords and noise restrictions that try to keep the emerging art scene down.
We hope to see you out tonight. We’ll be the ones in black mourning the death of a beautiful independent venue.
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