The church, who confirmed the sale in a video posted to their YouTube channel yesterday, reportedly purchased the venue for $23 million under the name Community Venues Pty Ltd.
Hillsong founder Brian Houston declared that the church would fund a ‘complete rennovation’ of the venue, with the church aiming to use Festival Hall as a site of Sunday worship once COVID restrictions are eased.
In the video, Hillsong State Pastor Tim Douglass confirmed that Festival Hall would remain open to the public and would continue to hold live music events throughout the week, stating that “The cool thing about purchasing Festival Hall is it’s going to continue to be Festival Hall.”
“It has served the people of this city in different events over the years and it’s going to continue to do that. We just get to be the church that purchases it and continues to serve, but also gets to see it be the house of God on Sundays.”
The church’s acquisition of Festival Hall, which has formerly hosted the likes of the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Iggy Pop and more, comes two years after the site was initially put on the market, with several fearing that the heritage-listed venue would be demolished in order to construct high rise apartments.
Watch Hillsong’s announcement in the video below.
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