The Good Room have announced this morning, February 2, that the Kino on Washington Street in Cork will not reopen as a music venue.

The Cork-based promoters, who also run the Live At St. Luke's concert series, took over the lease of the popular Cork venue in September 2019 – presenting performances from the likes of Feist, The Mary Wallopers, Gemma Dunleavy, Junior Brother, CMAT, Soda Blonde, True Tides, Yenkee, Luka Bloom, Maija Sofia and more.

In a statement shared on the Kino's website, The Good Room revealed that they had "come to a new agreement with the landlord recently to stay until the end of the summer." However, due to the "latest government extension of level 5 restrictions", they noted that "it will likely be June or July before the live performance sector is allowed to re-open. It wasn’t feasible to continue paying substantial rent for the next several months in the hopes of maybe opening for a few weeks. Only to vacate shortly after in order for the building to be sold."

"It’s devastating to be leaving so much sooner that we had hoped but unfortunately the timing never worked for us in the Kino," they stated. "We were only six months into what was a five year plan when Covid came along and we were forced to close last March.

"In truth we had just found our groove and the venue was getting a great name nationally. We never got a chance to fully realise our vision for the Kino. Had Covid not come along we would be in a completely different situation."

In the statement, The Good Room also revealed that they are currently "exploring a couple of options in the city at the moment and hope to have a new venue for Cork before the end of the year."

"We hope to be back with Live At St. Luke’s concerts in the autumn and as soon as we can get back to live events we have some incredible stuff lined up," they added. "We’ll be hitting the ground running and know that we will only go from strength to strength once things open up again."

Read the full statement here.