Grand Rapids’ Music Scene Loses Beloved Venue Skelletones
Sad news to report out of Grand Rapids today as Skelletones announced that it would be permanently closing as a second run comes to an end in Grand Rapids. The all-ages music venue has announced that at the end of 2025, it will permanently shut down.
The 1700 ft.² music venue first opened up in 2000 and stayed open until 2008. It was the perfect local hangout for high schoolers and young college kids as it was alcohol-free, and it has stayed that way the entire time.
Recently, the owner, Mark, informed their followers that they will be closing down and celebrating with one last show on New Year’s Eve.
We've gone back and forth on what we should do come January. For a myriad of reasons, we've decided to let our old space go. It's not necessarily goodbye, though we thought it might be. Being a "lifer" this is too much in our blood. It's a privilege to serve our scene in some small way. So we'll take some time while we figure out the future. A new place to call home. Thank you all for being so central to this - far beyond a Friday night. Now, maybe more than ever, we need one another.
It’s been very tough for local venues ever since the pandemic began.
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The return of local music is a good sign, but a lot of these businesses took a major hit when everything shut down due to COVID-19. That’s not to say why this venue is closing, but it does deserve some recognition that owning a music venue is a very difficult profession.