Sudbury's newest music venue to open soon in a converted church
CBC
The newest music venue in Sudbury, Ont., will host its first performance on Dec. 7.
Juno-nominated Jazz crooner Alex Bird will perform at the newly renovated Knox Hall in the city's downtown.
Liana Bacon and Dan Guillemette purchased the former Knox Presbyterian Church earlier in the year to transform it into an arts venue.
With auditorium seating replacing the pews in the nearly 100-year-old building, Bacon said the main auditorium will be able to seat more than 320 people.
A smaller space in the basement will be able to accommodate about 80 concert-goers.
"I'm thinking that there will be room for dinner, theatre, there'll be room for a conference space too for people if they need that sort of thing," Bacon said.
Bacon said a lot of work has gone into renovating the space, and it has come with a few surprises as well.
"We found a war token for a meat ration in one of the pianos which was interesting."
In the last year, the couple have also opened the Night Owl speakeasy and Books and Beans coffee shop in downtown Sudbury.
"It was not the plan for us to purchase the church and convert it. It just sort of happened that way," Bacon said.
"It was an opportunity that we just didn't want to pass up. So doing it all over again, if it was like three years from now, that would have been beautiful."
Bacon said it's important for them to have a presence downtown.
"There's certainly been some changes in the downtown since COVID," she said.
"But I think that as we start investing in the downtown and putting things in that will bring people here to see what we have downtown.