Circa’s Peepshow at Castlemaine State Festival 2019.Credit: Carl Dziunka
While trouble surrounding music festivals has dominated headlines in the past year, some locals have pointed to more specific issues contributing to the losses incurred at the most recent Castlemaine festivals.
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Former Castlemaine Festival board member Mark Anstey, who served from 2010 to 2018, says the community has been shocked by the news. While the recent collapse is a surprise, he says, the last couple of festivals have been underwhelming.
“There’s been less community involvement, there’s been no schools programs and fewer big, free, celebratory events. It just felt like it was a step backwards, it was getting more exclusive,” he says.
Anstey runs the arts precinct Lot19, home to studios for 22 local artists, as well as the annual event Castlemaine Idyll – a riff on Australian Idol in which 30-odd locals sing karaoke before a crowd of about 1000, with guest celebrity judges awarding a winner.
He argued that disbanding forums that facilitated community involvement – such as Castlemaine Created, which presented and produced works by local artists and companies, the schools program and the international program which invited overseas…
