More Sydney pubs shun Australia Day … now it’s just the ‘long weekend’

Another big hospitality group is snubbing Australia Day, renaming it the “January long weekend” with no reference to the public holiday it revolves around.

Another major hospitality group has decided to snub Australia Day celebrations, instead encouraging patrons to spend money at its ritzy venues on the “January Long Weekend”.

Iris Capital Group, the company behind Sydney stalwarts such as the Hotel Steyne and Ivanhoe Hotel in Manly, sent out promotional materials promising to sort pubgoers’ “long weekend plans”, without any reference to Australia Day.

Posters for the Hotel Steyne detail events scheduled between Friday and Monday, including band performances and DJ sets, billing the occasion as the “Jan Long Weekend” and “another epic weekend at the local”.

Near identical posters for the Ivanhoe Hotel promise special live music gigs all through the long weekend, just a couple of hundred metres down the Manly Corso.

Manly local Lia Marty, 25, said dropping Australia Day while keeping the booze flowing simply was an “easy way out” of the holiday debate.

Manly’s Steyne Hotel is among the pubs in Iris Capital Group which is promoting long weekend events with no mention of Australia Day. Pictures: Supplied

“I think it glosses over what the day is actually about and what it represents,” Ms Marty said.

“It’s a bit easy to call it the ‘January Long Weekend’. It’s a bit of an easy way out.”

Ms Marty said the name change could be a tactic by hospitality businesses to capitalise on the public holiday, while dancing around potential stigma.

“For a lot of Australians the day is very much about drinking and obviously these are bars, so they probably want a lot of people to come in and if they don’t call it Australia Day I think the chances (for more business) are better.“

Fellow northern Sydney locals Tony and Dawn Brentnall, 72, said they would like to see the city stick to tradition.

“It’s Australia Day to me, because it always has been,” Mr Brentnall said.

“The Steyne is an iconic Manly hotel, and it should be (celebrating) Australia Day.”

Opposition leader Peter Dutton on Thursday slammed Australian Venue Co for omitting references to the national holiday in its promotional material. Picture: NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

Iris Capital Group owns 53 hospitality venues and hotels, 5000 luxury apartments, two casinos and three fully operational vineyards across Australia.

Though its northern beaches venues have led the Australia Day snub, multiple others have followed suit, including the Sydney Junction Hotel in Newcastle.

Iris Capital Group was contacted for comment but did not respond.

It follows hospitality group Australian Venue Co again snubbing Australia Day by blatantly omitting references to the national holiday in its promotional material for the long weekend.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton slammed that company, asking how it could “reap a huge profit off the back of hardworking Australians” but shun their wishes on the national day.

“I just say to patrons who know the pubs this company owns, I would encourage them to call the company and express their view and express that they don’t support this abandonment of our national day,” he said.

“What other country, what other Western civilisation, abandons its national day? We shouldn’t and Australia Day should be a great celebration of an amazing country.”