NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — While most venues closed because of COVID, one Germantown concert hall didn't even have the chance to open.
“It was such an amazingly stressful thing to go through,” said Brooklyn Bowl founder and designer, Charley Ryan. “The place was looking great, we were ready to go, and we only pulled the plug about 48 hours before we were going to open up on March 13.”
Four years of planning for the venue's debut were put on hold with just days to go. “And no one wanted to do that, no one really wanted to do that of course,” said Ryan.
Brooklyn Bowl offers guests food, drinks and bowling- but music is the venue’s heartbeat.
“We transitioned, it was actually pretty lucky -- we got these cameras installed. There’s three cameras, I believe PTZ’s, a week before we were supposed to open,” said the venue's talent buyer, Colin Keegan. Thanks to those cameras the 1,200 person venue live streamed 50 performances for audiences at home during COVID.
“It’s just crazy that we had that many shows before we actually had a real show but it got really good practice and got our name out to Nashville hopefully,” said Keegan.
Now, for the first time, Brooklyn Bowl Nashville celebrated opening weekend for a live audience.
“After everything we went through to get to the finish line which turned out to be cut off and extended for another 15 and a half months. So I just couldn’t be more ecstatic,” said Ryan.
It's finally bringing more music back to Music City.
“Just seeing those smiling faces, seeing our staff at work, seeing the smiling faces of the bands, like that’s what we do it for and that’s why we’re so happy to open our doors,” said Keegan.
