Eve Lamb
Strong results for both the Castlemaine Jazz Festival and the town’s Rotary Art Festival over the Queen’s Birthday weekend auger well for the future of both.
Particularly strong sales of art works and visitations to the town hall art show venue over the weekend have delighted organisers of the annual Rotary Art Show.
“It’s been fabulous,” one of the art show’s committee coordinators, Robert Cordy said.
“Everything was up on pre-pandemic levels. All up some 1500 people of all ages attended the show.
“We hope to have raised around $15,000 for Rotary’s ongoing local and international charity work,” fellow art show committee coordinator Judy Kinnersley said.
For the jazz festival organisers there had been some anxiety over sluggish ticket sales in the lead up to the event’s post-COVID return as music gigs state-wide contend with niche challenges of getting back on track after two years of pandemic impacts on the sector.
But in the end, the musos – about 196 of them all up – and the jazz lovers came to the party in sufficient number and energy to have organisers breathing a sigh of relief and already planning for next year’s.
“It’s really exciting to see there is still a place for the jazz festival in Castlemaine and a future for the festival in Castlemaine,” Jazz Festival director Calum McClure told the Mail, post event.
“I think it … Read more in today’s Mail