How This Wollongong Venue Is Bolstering One Of Australia’s Quietly Excellent Music Scenes

Wollongong Venue

If you’re a fan of sweaty mosh-pits, yelling your favourite lyrics with complete abandon and soaking up the best of what the Aussie music scene has to offer, you’re probably well acquainted with La La La’s. It’s one of Wollongong’s premier live music venues and has since played host to hundreds of artists and punters who live and breathe what it means to be part of a booming music community.

The venue was one of the recipients of the $1 Million American Express Music Backers Grant –  a grant designed to give artists and businesses the support they need to thrive at the heart of the culture. After live music took a backseat to the pandemic last year, the grant has allowed La La La’s to continue to serve the Wollongong scene and develop their vision of being a complete hub of alternative culture.

“Wollongong’s music scene is thriving at the moment. It’s really important for people to be able to perform their art,” said Nathan Stratton, owner-manager of La La La’s to PEDESTRIAN.TV.

“Our vision is to have a purpose-built live music venue for touring acts, for the Wollongong live music community, from a grassroots developing level to an established level. The American Express Music Backers Grant will help us achieve our vision of having live music events seven days a week,” said Nathan.

Serving up cocktails, natural wines and decked out in vintage art and a Wollongong-themed shrine, the venue exudes an entirely unique vibe, representative of the diverse and buzzing scene developing in the area. The grant has also allowed the venue to purchase a range of DJ equipment, allowing them to expand their events and bring in different styles of artists into the venue.

Wollongong is responsible for so many incredible acts who’ve blossomed into Australia’s leading indie acts in recent years – bands like Hockey Dad, Totty, Totally Unicorn, and so many more have cemented their place as huge players in the game recently, breeding from the grassroots ‘Gong community La La La’s was founded in.

You can suss out their gig guide here and get some further insight into what you can expect from La La La’s in the next few months in the video below.

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