Wayne Hyde stands in his bar Nov. 17, 2021, at HydeOut at the Wharf in Hallowell. Hyde moved the business to Augusta in April 2022 after saying the property owner refused to renew his lease while also raising his rent. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file
A longtime and popular area bar hosting music acts says it plans to close at the end of June.
The HydeOut at the Wharf, which spent some 40 years in Hallowell before moving to 71 Water St. in Augusta in April 2022, said in a recent Facebook post that this marks the business’s “Turn out the Lights Tour.”
While the business owners said many musicians have graced the wharf’s stage, “we do not get crowds,” the post stated, attributing such decline to the COVID-19 pandemic and “being forced to move” out of the longtime Hallowell location. The bar owner, Wayne Hyde, said in 2021 that the business was being pushed out of its Hallowell location because the landlord was raising rent and refused to renew the bar’s lease.
News of that contentious situation in Hallowell prompted public protests by bar supporters.
Business “has gone away” since the move and “that can not happen,” the Facebook post states. “I would like to thank you for coming in to help support live music. But our time has come and gone.”
The bar said its last show will be Friday, June 30, and its “last official act will be celebration of life July 1st for Chuckie Chuckie Chuckie with a 1 p.m. start.” The performers on the last night include Pat Shepard from 6-8 p.m., and from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m., MYOB.
Word on the Street is an online-only feature about trending happenings in central Maine. If you have an idea for our next Word on the Street, email Ben Pinette at bpinette@mainetoday.com.
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