HISTORY 

The Orbit Room is a fairly new business in Bloomington. It started in October of 2018, and it was in the basement of a building called the Kresge Building, which was part of a store chain of 5 and 10-cent stores. The building was also used for fencing practice and was a magician’s theater.

Katie Novotny and Mike Klinge, the people who started the Orbit Room, met at Upland, a local brewery in Bloomington. This is when they moved to the west coast and Mike went on tour with his band, TV Mike and the Scarecrows.

“We never thought we’d open a bar, but we thought Bloomington was lacking something,” he explained. Mike didn't want to make a bar that was only for the college crowd; he wanted the bar to be for everyone.

The Orbit Room used to be for people 21 years old and over because it was a bar, but now it's for all ages because they separated the bar from the other stuff like pinball machines. Mike added pinball machines because when he was in the west coast pinball machines were popular in bars. 

ROLE IN THE COMMUNITY

 The Orbit Room has many products, including beer, root beer, and hot dogs. They are mainly a pub, which means it has alcohol. They also have entertainment, including pinball machines (which they have a club dedicated to) and live music.   Over the years, the bar has hosted over 150 bands. They also have a collaboration with the Cicada Underground, a nonprofit pop-up movie theater in Bloomington. Through this collaboration, they host Orbit Room Movie Club, where they show classics, such as Rock and Roll High School

The pinball league plays every month for free. The pinball tournaments are sanctioned by the International Flipper Pinball Association, meaning the wins at the Orbit Room tournaments count as a legal win internationally. The Orbit Room connects people with music, songs, pinball, and live performances. 

The Orbit room hosts an event called "Cosmic Songwriters Club”. The showcase for the club started in 2021. It happened the first Wednesday of every month at The Orbit room. Up to 2 artists can play at a time. After it became more popular, they began to start a Cosmic Songwriters Festival.

The Cosmic Songwriters Festival was started in 2023 for the Cosmic Songwriters Club’s 2’nd anniversary. The festival has expanded to multiple venues such as the Bluebird, Switchyard Park, Blockhouse Bar, Buskirk Chumly Theatre, and of course, The Orbit Room.

The Orbit Room generally plays whatever music is available. Musicians like Mark Bingham have played at the Orbit Room. Over 150 people have played at their venue. The orbit room has collaborated with Cicada Underground, a pop-up movie theatre that is NON-PROFIT. One unique thing about the Orbit Room is that they are underground in a basement-like space.

The Orbit Room is quite small, yet it has made a big community with its entertainment and food.