Station on Jasper in Edmonton suddenly shutters its doors

Station on Jasper, a music venue in downtown Edmonton, has announced it's closing its doors.

The venue, which has been open for five years, posted a message on their social media channels Friday afternoon, saying in part: "We worked hard to reopen after all the COVID closures, but it was a tough ride.

Our team is working on finding homes for future shows. Unfortunately, some may be cancelled in which there will be ticket refunds issued."

CBC reached out to Station on Jasper for further comment, but did not hear back by publication time.

The venue had shows lined up in the coming weeks, including concerts for the Road the the Junos concert series.

Jo Johnson, the lead singer and guitar player of local band River Poets, said the closure is a loss for the music community in Edmonton.

"It was like a gut-punch yesterday for sure," he said in an interview Saturday.

River Poets played their first show at Station on Jasper in October, and said the process of working with them was great. Johnson commended the professionalism of the staff and their attention to detail.

The band was slated to play at the venue next month.

"Not only are these guys booking people in and they're getting music out to the communities, but they're putting people together where they feel like it'll be a cohesive show, and that's awesome. We really appreciated that," Johnson said.

He added that the person who booked them for that first show also reached out to other venues encouraging them to book River Poets.

"We need more of these venues, not less of them," Johnson said.

Brian Fauteux, an associate professor of popular music and media studies at the University of Alberta, said losing mid-sized venues is a blow to smaller bands.

"That is one thing that Edmonton doesn't have too many of," he said in an interview Saturday.

Fauteux said The Station and Starlite Room were two examples of mid-sized venues in the city.

"And then if you're bigger than that, you kind of have [the Edmonton Convention Centre] or something like the Jubilee. But having those those mid-sized venues are really important for a lot of bands that might be touring Canada," he said.