Oxford Art Factory

Oxford Art Factory is a two-room live-music venue in Darlinghurst, Sydney, with a 490-capacity Live Art Space and a 120-capacity Gallery Bar. Its defining feature is the split-scale setup: a full dance-floor bandroom beside a smaller room where new artists can play to a close crowd. The venue runs beneath Oxford Street in premises once occupied by Central Station Records, linking its present-day shows to a music-retail past.

A record-store basement becomes a stage

Founder Mark Gerber opened Oxford Art Factory in September 2007, drawing its name and multidisciplinary premise from Andy Warhol’s 1960s New York Factory. City of Sydney planning material records Gerber’s occupation of the basement in late 2007, when the former Central Station Records space took the Oxford Art Factory name; the surrounding Edwardian commercial building also sits within the Oxford Street Heritage Streetscape Area. The format placed visual art, performance and gigs under one roof, with the Gallery Bar functioning as a compact launchpad beside the larger room. One early marker came in 2008, when Lady Gaga played her first Australian show there, according to Time Out’s venue history. In 2015, Gerber put the strata property on the market while retaining the operating business, telling ABC that the venue would continue its live-music and arts program. That episode kept the ownership of the walls separate from the running of the stage.

The room today

Expect a mixed local-and-touring bill across indie, rock, pop, electronic, folk, R&B and heavier music, with the smaller Gallery Bar suited to early-career sets and release shows. Artists can submit directly to the venue with links to their music, which makes its emerging-act focus practical as well as promotional. For audiences, choose the Live Art Space for the main stage, dance floor, mezzanine and bar; choose the Gallery Bar for booths, a tighter room and a quieter scale between larger shows.