Chapter I: The Loss
The Main Street Construction Project has taken a heavier toll than we anticipated
...The energy has shifted.
- Via Nectar's Instagram,May 8th, 2025
The sequence & timing of these are IMPORTANT, because the venue didn't fade out as a relic of the past.
and the truth is, people were (and are) still willing to show up.
Within a matter of weeks, this was posted to their social media:
Main Street
They closed in the midst of an active crisis that was influenced by
A Disagreeably vague construction project & atmospheric social shifts, both of which gave way to a decline in foot traffic.
Burlington Watched Nectar's die in front of them, and now live amongst its carcass.
&
The Death of A Music Community
Places like this don't vanish
Overnight, but they're usually "Lost" before they're officially declared gone.
And in a city like Burlington,
whose identity is deeply ingrained with live music, the closing of Nectar's represented a tear in the cultural fabric of a community.
on may 8th, 2025,
nectar's announces that they will be closed for the summer due to
"immense challenges affecting both downtown Burlington and the local live music & entertainment scene".
Courtesy: NECTAR'S (@nectarsvt), INSTAGRAM, JULY 31st, 2025
COURTESY: NBC 5 VERMONT
LIVE AT
shot by: Andrew McCarthy
1/31/2025
A lot of it has to deal with consistency that was maintained simultaneously between Nectar's & the music community of Burlington that's made up of artists and fans alike.
For a long duration there was live music 5 nights a week, lots of times with a cheap cover charge or none at all.
If you do that long enough, people begin to form a habit, and eventually find themselves integrating the space into their own existence in our world.
Now great music will always be great music,
and Nectar's found no shortage in booking talent that was on a surefire path to success.
But beneath describing its links with famous figures
is a deeper & far more profound reason as to why it communally mattered so much.
Like any killer venue out there, Nectar’s mattered because it was a reliable spot that people felt they could keep coming back to reliably.
They would first open up their doors when a Greek immigrant named Nector Rorris purchased the formerly named Hi-Hat restaurant back in 1975.
The Life and Times of Nectar's
I RECOGNIZED SOMETHING
WONDERFULLY FAMILIAR THE MOMENT
I APPROACHED THE VENUE:
THE CROWD SMOKING CIGARETTES OUTSIDE, MAKING ITS OWN SOCIAL SCENE BY THE CURB;
THE SOUNDS OF MUSIC COMING FROM BOTH FLOORS OF THE CLUB; THE SMELL OF GREASY FRENCH FRIES SERVED OUT OF A WALK-UP WINDOW...
OH, THIS WAS THE FUCKING SPOT.
— Chris Farnsworth
Music editor,Seven days
Since then, Nectar's grew to become what many would say was Burlington’s defining music space.
Rorris stands in front of the original signage that spelled it out "Nector's", rather than the updated & more widely known "Nectar's" with an "a". | Courtesy: Rob Swanson
And in a very living and embodied way,
it's where people find the exploding moment,
where we feel the joy of a shared co-presence and admiration for one of the purest art forms the human experience has to offer us.
1987
1988
The Nectar's & Phish Relationship
The Aftermath
By the time that nectar's closed down,the construction had moved along, but the damage was done from the prolonged project and its ambiguous completion date.
the music scene of burlington now lost the space that put them on the map.
The reality is that nectar's was around long enough to become an ordinary piece of life in Burlington, and in no small way.
It is precisely this reason why it cut so deep once it was gone.
There was a natural space with an unnatural subtraction.