Castlemaine State Festival is expanding our organisational ambition by developing a major creative precinct with year-round activity at the Castlemaine Goods Shed. Scheduled for completion in 2024, this new cultural asset will allow us to deliver expanded artistic programs, partnerships and have a major physical presence to the community and our visitors. The Goods Shed will allow us to deepen our already strong community engagement with the region, and grow new audiences for arts and culture in Castlemaine. Most importantly, this strategy will provide a framework for financial sustainability around Victoria’s pre-eminent regional multi-arts Festival.

With the development of Goods Shed Arts in 2020, this historical railway building is already starting to thrive as a creative hub and home to CSF. We are now aiming to continue the redevelopment of the Goods Shed into a vibrant performance and exhibition venue which supports and inspires creative practice, engages the community and is a driver for the regions’ artists and creative industries.

The Goods Shed redevelopment will create opportunities for year-round activities and build on CSF’s 47 years of festival experience. We anticipate 100+ events and 5,000+ visitations, with around one third of these from outside the region, and it will better resource artist residencies, enabling them to develop new work over longer periods. It is proposed as a site of international collaboration, especially between regionally based artists and creatives from diverse backgrounds and it will provide our local community with a well-resourced arts and events space.