page_title: The Tote Hotel
section_title: 17 January rally
hierarchical_section_title: The Tote Hotel / January 2010 closure / 17 January rally
caption_attribution_description: English: The queue to get into the Tote Hotel on it's closing night, down Wellington Street, Collingwood, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Photo taken by Nick carson, January 2010.
context_page_description: The Tote Hotel is a hotel, pub, bar and music venue on 71 Johnston Street, the corner of Johnston and Wellington Streets, in Collingwood, an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The hotel was probably built in 1870 as Healey's, becoming the Ivanhoe Hotel in 1876, and held by the Healey family until 1940, when it was renovated. The name changed to "The Tote" in 1980 when the venue began hosting local and Australian punk, post-punk, heavy metal and hardcore bands.
  The venue hosted many independent local, Australian and international acts throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s and carried a reputation for showcasing new and emerging independent musical acts of a variety of stylistic origins. The venue operated 6 days a week with performances across 3 settings, the "main stage", the "cobra bar" and the "front bar". Residencies were also a popular occurrence at the venue.
  On 15 January 2010, due to high financial costs surrounding disputed liquor licensing laws, it was announced that the venue would be closing that same weekend. A groundswell of community support for the venue and opposition to aspects of liquor licensing laws, quickly mobilised.
context_section_description: At 6pm on Sunday, 17 January, an estimated crowd of between 2,000 and 5,000 rallied outside the Tote, filling the intersection of Johnston and Wellington Streets and spilling down each street. People found other vantage points on rooftops, upper story windows and balconies in the surrounding buildings. Amongst the crowd were amateur and professional photographers, film makers, a Tote documentary crew, various local independent music celebrities and a large collection of Melbourne's local independent musicians, patrons, long-time Tote patrons, former employees and others.
  Petitions circulated the crowd before a makeshift PA system was set up through one of the building's upper-level windows, facilitating speeches from "Fair Go 4 Live Music", Rod Quantock, a councillor for the City of Yarra and owner Bruce Milne. A long line of optimistic patrons had also begun to form down Wellington Street attempting to gain access to the venue.
  As the evening progressed, several unsuccessful attempts were made to set up bands in the street. A house in Wellington Street had bands playing within it, while a shopfront at 79 Johnston Street also housed a band called Psychic Temple, featuring members from Melbourne-based outfits Electric Jellyfish, The Morrisons and The Melbourne Bitters. By 10pm, the crowd had been moved to the pathways and around 11pm the intersection was reopened. A large crowd remained at the intersection for some time into the night.
caption: People gathering and queuing on Wellington Street, closing night
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