It’s devastating to be leaving so much sooner that we had hoped but unfortunately the timing never worked for us in the Kino. We were only six months into what was a five year plan when Covid came along and we were forced to close last March.

In truth we had just found our groove and the venue was getting a great name nationally. We never got a chance to fully realise our vision for the Kino. Had Covid not come along we would be in a completely different situation.

We’d like to thank our landlord, Philip O’Connor for his support and understanding all the way through. There was good communication between us and we all had to make compromises due to Covid. He was fair and wanted us to do well in the venue. It was a hard year for everyone but communication was key to making it work. We’re happy that we leave on good terms and wish him all the best in the sale of the building.

We’re extremely proud of all the great gigs and events we put on during our tenure. So many brilliant acts, both Irish and international performed there in the eight months we were actually open. There was real heart and genuine effort from our staff, crew and all the artists, we want to thank all of them for that. It made the venue the special space that it was. Everyone was sound and great at their job!

We lost a lot, but learned so much from the experience and genuinely loved every minute we had there. Everything we’ve learned from the Kino will all be put into practise in the next incarnation. We are exploring a couple of options in the city at the moment and hope to have a new venue for Cork before the end of the year.

The live performance industry as a whole is in tatters and everyone from promoters to sound engineers and all along the supply chain are hanging on by a thread. Supports like the Live Performance Support Scheme are the only thing keeping some of these businesses alive and these need to be continued and added to for 2021 and 2022 or there will be a lot more bad news like this coming.

We hope to be back with Live At St. Luke’s concerts in the autumn and as soon as we can get back to live events we have some incredible stuff lined up. We’ll be hitting the ground running and know that we will only go from strength to strength once things open up again.