The Grand Rapids nightclub isn’t shutting down, just taking a three-month break amid the flurry of outdoor festivals and summer live music options.
Quiet Summer: The Orbit Room won’t see throngs like this again till September. (Photo/Anthony Norkus Photography)
For those worried that The Orbit Room in Grand Rapids had gone silent for good, think again.
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Owner Don Dorshimer tells LocalSpins.com that the 1,800-capacity nightclub and rock concert venue is simply shutting down for three months because he’s not interested in competing with all the outdoor festivals and summer-styled entertainment flooding the West Michigan market.
The Orbit Room’s website is still up, but no concert dates are currently listed under “Upcoming Shows.”
“You’ve got a ton of festivals, a ton of outdoor things going on,” Dorshimer says. “Every time you turn around there’s something, there’s Founders Fest, there’s Rock the Rapids, there’s constantly stuff going on in the summer.”
Dorshimer reviewed The Orbit Room’s bookings the past few summers and “to be quite honest, it didn’t really pay off. So I thought, give it a rest during the summer. Why fight over shows?”
Indoor venues, he reasons, are at a disadvantage, especially with so many free outdoor shows, festivals with multiple acts, and popular amphitheater concert series like the one at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.
“The numbers are just not good in the summer,” he says. “I’ll let everybody else fight over the acts. It’s not as though I need to keep the name of the Orbit Room out there; it’s been out there for 24 years. Taking three months off isn’t going to take me off the radar.”
Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
Copyright 2013, Spins on Music
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