Donna’s Barbershop in Bonita Springs doubling as music venue

Where else in Southwest Florida can you get a haircut and attend a local show on the same day than at Donna’s Barbershop?

The shop, which now doubles as a music venue, is located in downtown Bonita Springs.

It hosts local live shows, giving local musicians a new place to play.

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On concert day, you won’t see barber chairs, combs or razors.

Instead, you’ll see amps, mics, soundboards, a drum set and the talent of the local music scene behind each instrument.

The only signs of a barbershop during show day is the wall decorations and the mirrors, which owner and manager Bobby Souza asks to please not to elbow or fall into during an energetic set.

Souza was inspired to make the shop a venue by Roadrunner Curated, a skate shop in San Carlos Park that closed in 2023.

“I think the community had a great deal of loss surrounding it because it was a place that a lot of us call a second home and the same thing with Ollie’s,” Souza said.

Just two months ago, Ollie’s Pub, a significant local venue in Cape Coral, closed down.

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READ MORE ABOUT OLLIE’S:

• Ollie’s Pub, the home of SWFL’s local music scene, closes after 4 memorable years
• The story of Ollie’s Pub and what kept it open through years of hardships

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With the absence of Ollie’s, Donna’s Barbershop and other venues hope to fill in the gap that Ollie’s left behind.

“I think a lot of people are very sad, and I’m sad that we don’t have a place for us to go and gather and be ourselves. I think after Ollie’s, too, we needed that, just somewhere to congregate,” Souza said.

Souza highlighted that Donna’s is a safe space.

“I just wanted a safe space for everybody, like LGBTQ+, any gender, race, religion. Hate is not allowed here, so I don’t support any hate or anything like that. I just want it to be a place where everybody can come and enjoy and be themselves,” he said.

The venue, Souza said, is a place to give local talent a platform.

“I definitely want to just give a place for young creatives to come and perform, give them a platform to display their art and for everybody to congregate safely and have a safe space,” he said.

SWFL’s local music scene will always need a place for people to gather.

“So being creative with the venues and being creative with the way that we gather, and I think that can be very productive going forward. I don’t know if this particular venue is the future for [the] Southwest Florida [music scene],” he said. “I wouldn’t go that far or say anything like that. We’re just a little barbershop that likes to have our friends come and play.”

Having venues like Donna’s are important to the underground scene, according to Souza.

“There’s a place where we can just hang out up front and just be ourselves and slam on the drums and get pushed around, act a fool for 45 minutes, and I think we need that, for sure. That underground scene is really needed. That’s what this place gives,” he said.

Souza said he doesn’t want the venue to ever replace anything, but he wants to help replicate what we’ve seen in the local music scene.

Donna’s next show is on June 28. They are hosting Cypress Fight Club, Amulet Yellow and Mozaynic.

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Read more on local music below:

• SWFL band DONEFOR to open for Sublime, 311 and Goldfinger at Orlando music festival
• Record Store Day in SWFL: What to expect and where to go
• SWFL artist, AHZUWOP, debuts hip-hop album with original art showcase
• SWFL thrash punk band Except You releases EP on exclusive, recycled vinyl