Here's to five more: Crown St's Society City celebrates milestone anniversary

Live music, workshops and house DJs have all been organised by Society City's manager Josh Shimmen for Saturday, May 25, from 2pm.

"It's got stuff happening all day, it'd be about 10 hours worth of stuff we're putting on," Mr Shimmen said.

"It's a bit of a thank you to the community for the support they've given us and the donations they've given us over the course of the last five years to help bail us out."

In April this year, Society City was staring down $5000 worth of rental debt but raised the funds they need through community donations.

"We're on a bit of a different trajectory now, so hopefully we don't have to keep relying on those kinds of donations."

The musical acts on Saturday reflect Society City's overall mission with local artists who might struggle to play a gig at other venues for being too niche getting a chance to play in front of a crowd.

"We've got anything from kind of folk-electronic covers,too, I think we've got like a grungy shoe gazey band at night," Mr Shimmen said.

"This place is responsible for creating, actually physically creating culture within people so that's super important."

Society City began as part of Renew Wollongong in 2019, a program that sought to fill vacant spaces with creative enterprises.

"It was a really awesome incentive," Mr Shimmen said.

"When it first started here, it was literally a bookshop, I think they had a few desks and it wasn't as kind of colourful and as kind of multifaceted as it is now."

Since taking over in August last year, Mr Shimmen has refitted the Crown Street location and put more focus on events at the shop.

"I volunteered to take on [the position] and I've got a business investment in here, but it's more than that, you know what I mean?

"As long as the doors stay open and we're able to facilitate a space for people to do stuff, that's what it's all about."

Mr Shimmen hopes people who are interested will come and support the local group of creatives on its fifth birthday.

"We're a nice mix of everything, where we've got a licensed bar in here, but we are also mainly an art space, mainly a creative space," he said.

"The idea and the concept has been here for five years, I would really like to go for another five years."