Aldinga music venue Soul House Social Club to hold ‘private party’ on Saturday, Onkaparinga Council says it has no planning approval
A popular Adelaide music venue was set to reopen with a booked-out show on Saturday night. The local council has other ideas.
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The reopening of a beloved music venue at Aldinga is in doubt after the local council said it didn’t have approval, despite a booked-out opening night show scheduled for Saturday.
A Facebook page in March said The Pepper Tree, a live music venue that closed in 2022, was “back” and “the opening night” would be Saturday, May 3, under the name Soul House Social Club.
However, a spokesman for Onkaparinga Council on Monday said the venue had not yet received planning approval and the council had informed the property’s lessee that “no functions can occur until development approval is granted”.
“The application requires public notification, a process that provides three weeks for the public to respond with their support or concerns of the proposed activities. The public notification period has not yet commenced for this application,” he said.
Free tickets to an opening night show on Saturday, featuring reggae band Exodus, sold out after the event was advertised on The Soul House Social Club Facebook page in March.
The page has also shared links selling tickets for shows featuring The Honey Badgers on May 17 and Tom Harrington on May 30. An event with Full Circle was advertised for on June 7.
The property’s lessee, Damien Knowles, blamed the council in comments made on Tuesday to The Advertiser.
“Yesterday (an employee) from the department rang and said that she hadn’t realised that it had to go out for public notification, which takes three weeks,” he said.
“They actually gave us the wrong information when we were filling out our forms in order to open back up for this weekend.
“We’ve done everything that has been requested of us.”
Mr Knowles said the show on Saturday was a “private party” and Soul House Social Club “was never meant to be opening this weekend”.
He said there was “nothing happening” until the ticketed Honey Badgers show on May 24, which may go ahead if the application was approved in time.
Onkaparinga Council planning manager Matthew Lawrence last week said in an email to a resident the lessee for the Aldinga property had not yet paid a fee required to officially lodge the planning application.
However, Mr Knowles said the planning application was completed four to six weeks ago.
The Peppertree Cafe at Aldinga announced a temporary closure on Facebook in November 2022, cancelling its upcoming shows.
The business was listed for sale in January 2023 and was later sold to new owners.
The venue previously won a two-year battle over noise complaints, allowing them to trade seven days a week.
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