Extremely strong demand for tickets to this Sunday’s Newstead Live Picnic Concerts bodes well for the future of the town’s long running Newstead Live festival, the event’s director says.
“It’s a bit of placeholder,” Kelly Skinner says of this Sunday’s event happening when the festival normally would have – pre-Covid.
After a rip-roaring Newstead Live 2020 snuck in just before the pandemic struck, Newstead Live 2021 was cancelled due to Covid 19.
However, Victoria’s progress made in thwarting the virus spread since prompted the organising committee to go ahead with the scaled-back picnic concert instead.
It had been set for the town’s rec reserve but the heat now forecast for Sunday has now prompted and eleventh hour relocation to the town’s Community Centre.
“It’s going to be a scorcher on Sunday so we’ve shifted to the community centre,” Kelly notes.
“It’s not really a festival but it’s still Newstead Live and really it’s kind of a bit of a place-holder and a celebration of Newstead Live,” she says.
With Irish-born-Melbourne based Enda Kenny headlining and Ian Bland as MC, the program also features Cat & Clint, Mon Coeur and Skyscraper Stan.
