Adelaide City Council could force Royal Croquet Club out of Victoria Square

THE popular Fringe venue Royal Croquet Club could be moved out of Victoria Square under a proposal to be considered by Adelaide City Council.

THE popular Fringe venue Royal Croquet Club could be moved out of Victoria Square under a proposal to be considered by Adelaide City Council.

The council will tonight vote on a proposal to find a new home for the Club in 2017, and change some of its conditions for next year’s event.

The Royal Croquet Club (RCC) will have to stop playing loud music at midnight but a previous proposal to reduce the event’s opening hours has been ditched. It will continue to open until 2am on weekends and the lockout remains at 1am.

Councillor Alex Antic said he was proposing the changes to the event to address community concerns about its impact on Victoria Square.

“We are very supportive of the event but it may not be in the right spot,” he said.

“It’s a bit of a square peg in a round hole at the moment.

“We want to make sure we communicate with (the event’s organisers) that we want to find a location that is more suitable in 2017.”

The RCC has attracted criticisms from bricks-and-mortar businesses about getting an unfair trading advantage by using prime public land during February and March, while city residents and workers also expressed concerns about damaged to the Square caused by the event.

But the event was extremely popular last year, with more than 200,000 people attending during the Fringe period.

Mr Antic said there was no short list for alternative locations as yet.

“That’s something we would have to determine but it would obviously be in the city somewhere,” he said.

“We’d be willing to work pretty closely with the RCC to ensure we get something that works for everybody.”

Royal Croquet Club co-director Tom Skipper said he would await the outcome of tonight’s council meeting before making any decisions on the event’s future location.

“We have been looking at other locations in conjunction with the council for a while now,” he said.

“If things keep getting harder at Victoria Square then we will have to seriously consider those other options.”

But the council had raised the possibility of moving the event last month, if a compromise could not be reached.

Mr Skipper has called on supporters to attend the council meeting to demonstrate the event’s appeal.

“It should be a pretty packed gallery tonight and something similar to the cyclists that went in (to the council) for the Frome St (bikeway) debate,” he said.

Councillor Robert Simms said the Square should be used to host festivals and events.

“(The) council didn’t spend $28 million on Victoria Square to turn it into a museum piece,” he said.

Mr Simms said he was worried the controversy over the Royal Croquet Club risked the city’s reputation for having a thriving arts and entertainment scene.

“I don’t want Adelaide to regain its title of killjoy capital of the country,” he said.

“When I was a teenager a big night in Adelaide was watching a marathon of The Bill.

“That’s not something we should aspire to go back to.”

Other parts of Mr Antic’s proposal include improving public access to the Victoria Square during the event and negotiating with the organisers to change the set up of the fencing to make it more visually appealing.

The RCC runs for about five weeks during the Fringe Festival.

The council will vote on the matter at tonight’s meeting.