Bowery Presents, promoter of the Music Hall of Williamsburg, has announced the impending closure of the iconic venue following the loss of its lease in a memo to staff.
First opening its doors under the name of Northsix in early 2001, the Music Hall of Williamsburg has served the New York City music scene with a vast array of bookings that have spanned indie in its truest form to intimate shows performed by household names faithfully for well over two decades now.
Given its acquiring and consequent renovation by Bowery Presents in 2010 and the star-studded list of names that have swept through the space since then, fears of closure due to lack of ticket sales or other similar struggles felt by countless venues post-Covid felt distant if not unnecessary.
Perhaps it was the comfort in its consistency that resulted in the sudden heartache felt by employees and local live music fans alike when a memo detailing the venue’s closure sent to Bowery Presents staff went public on December 17.
Co-partners Jim Glancy and John Moore detail the beginning of their venture as Bowery Presents and the eventual inclusion of the Music Hall, then explaining that “after nearly two decades, The Bowery Presents has been notified by the owners of 66 North 6th Street that our lease for Music Hall of Williamsburg will not be renewed, and our time in the building will come to an end at the conclusion of 2026.”
The news of the loss came as a complete shock to the public, but as detailed by a Reddit user on the r/indieheads subreddit who claims to have been an employee of the venue for over a decade, it was not entirely unexpected. They explain that the Music Hall’s closure had been a fear in the back of the staff’s minds for some time as “Williamsburg has become more impossibly expensive and the complaints from our bougie neighbors have increased and become more ridiculous.”
Not unlike the legal battles faced by the famed Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, the Music Hall seems to have found itself in a battle with its neighbors. However, in the case of Williamsburg, the venue’s leasing troubles seem to be symptomatic of far larger concerns surrounding gentrification, a sentiment echoed frequently in the Instagram comment section of Brooklyn Vegan, a local publication that was among the first to post about the closure on social media.
Jokes of the community needing yet another West Elm, Patagonia, or designer boutique to replace the space dot a comment section otherwise filled with people either offering nostalgic recollections of their favorite shows they’d attended or played themselves upon the Music Hall’s stage… or locals meeting the heartbreak with a larger disdain for the space’s upheaval into what one user described as “basically a strip mall.”
Having attended a handful of shows at the Music Hall purely as a fan, it feels most natural to fall somewhere in the odd middle of all three of these camps. There is certainly an ire saved for those who insist on upturning what seem to be dwindling beacons of what the New York City music scene has been and could continue to be, but my mind continues to return to the memories that frame the shows and the staff who took the time to help create them.
I’ve told the story of one security guard that, upon my arrival to the venue four hours prior to doors because I was convinced that my insanity about the band would therefore imply that everyone else would be just as passionately early– only to find the block practically deserted– kindly offered to keep a place for me in his mental line… given that I was alright with being second, as someone else who had arrived even earlier than me had already taken him up on the offer and ran to a nearby coffee shop… countless times.
This warmly communal attitude seems to permeate the Music Hall. Perhaps the anonymous staffer from Reddit earlier articulated it best: “This was the last of the Bowery venues to operate by a different handbook than others. More relaxed and treating the artists and staff more fairly. So it’s a bigger loss than this press release would ever be able to say.”
Certainly heartbreaking and without a doubt troublesome for those looking for venues to attend in Williamsburg, there might be some comfort in knowing that the Music Hall’s oncoming closure is exactly that… oncoming. While the venue will no doubt be missed dearly upon its final show, there is the small blessing of one calendar year left ahead of it.
“While we cannot speak to the future of 66 North 6th Street, The Bowery Presents is grateful for our time there, our staff that helps operate the venue night-after-night, and our collective commitment as a company to artist development. And as always, our passion for identifying new and exciting places for artists and fans to experience the transcendental power of live music will continue, as it has since we first crossed the bridge two decades ago.”
– Jim Glancy & John Moore, Bowery Presents
Until the music community of New York City can find a way to change the minds and ways of landlords, perhaps the next best option is to enjoy it while it lasts. Glancy and Moore have promised the production of shows in the Music Hall throughout the next year, their calendar already featuring a sprinkling of concerts each week through May of 2026.
To find out more about the next year at The Music Hall of Williamsburg and to browse which shows to catch before the venue’s closure, be sure to visit their official website here.
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