Castlemaine State Festival

The Chewton Small
2026-03-20 | Fryers Road, top of the Wattle Gully Wetlands, Fryers Road, top of the Wattle Gully Wetlands, Chewton, VIC, 3450, Australia
‘The Chewton Small’ will be Chewton’s, and possibly the world’s, newest and smallest art gallery.
Designed to exhibit one artwork at a time, it simplifies the viewing experience, diminishing the dilemma of where to look, and liberating the exhibited artwork from the perils of comparison. It will facilitate an intimate dialogue between viewer and artwork, free from the distraction of competing alternatives. The exhibition will be renewed daily, with a new work installed for the 10 days of the Castlemaine State Festival.
A limited number of a signed momento of each artwork will be able to be collected at the gallery, with the reward of a full set for any committed to a daily visit! The gallery sits on Fryers Rd in Chewton, at the top of the Wattle Gully wetlands, with expansive views to the passing trains on the Bendigo line below – a seat is provided for those who would like to take advantage.
Please note: there are specific entry and exits gates through which the gallery must be entered.

It's A Kind of Wonder
2026-03-20 11:00 - 16:00 (Australia/Melbourne) | Lot19, McShanag Drive, Castlemaine, Vic, 3450, Australia
The Castlemaine Fringe Festival brings its signature creativity to the State Festival with It’s A Kind of Wonder – a wearable art exhibition that transforms fashion into fantasy. Curated by Jody Galvin, Azzy Jay, Kya Moore, Ellen Doyle, Madeleine Somers, Martin John Lee, Andi Herman, Melissa Clark, Michelle Newton, and Kaz McMullan, the exhibition showcases handmade works that are bold, playful and unapologetically individual. Each piece redefines what it means to wear art – from sculptural headpieces to textile experiments that blur the line between costume and concept. The result is an explosion of colour, craft and character, true to Castlemaine’s reputation as a creative melting pot. It’s A Kind of Wonder is an invitation to revel in the weird and the wonderful – to see the human body not just as a canvas, but as a living artwork.

OPENING NIGHT - Street Party
2026-03-20 18:00 - 21:00 | Hargraves St, hargraves street, Castlemaine, Victoria, 3450, Australia
Marking the Festival’s golden milestone — 1976 to 2026 — the Hargraves Street Party opens our 50th anniversary with a joyful, powerful welcome to ten days of creativity, community and connection.
This much-loved celebration draws on the Festival’s long tradition of place-based storytelling. Hargraves Street becomes a meeting ground for locals, families, visitors and artists to gather, share space and step into a new chapter together.
OPENING NIGHT STREET PARTY – PROGRAM
Main Stage
6:00pm – Welcome to Country and Official Speeches
6:15-6:30pm – Nalderun Songbook Medley. Performed by local Primary Schools choir
6:40-7pm – Surf Rock. Performed by Castlemaine Secondary College Band
Heartical Hi Powa Stage
7:00-7:30pm – Jungle City Projects – Jamaican Dancehall, Afro Fusion and various Hip Hop dance forms
Main Stage
7:30-8:00pm – Castlemaine Circus, Functional Chaos Entertainment and Cho Kairin
Heartical Hi Powa Stage
8:00pm – 8:15pm – UKnow (Live Hip Hop)
Main Stage
8:20pm–9:10pm – Amaru Tribe
Heartical Hi Powa Stage
9:10pm–11:00pm Rolling DJ Program – MC Stick Mareboo
OPENING NIGHT STREET PARTY –EVENT MESSAGES
Seating – Please don’t bring chairs. If you need a chair, come to the First Aid station – See Site Map for location.
Food & Drinks – Local surrounding businesses will be providing take away food on the Opening Night.
Street Closures – Mostyn Street between Hargraves and Urquart Streets will be closed from 2pm. Hargraves Street will be closed between Forest Street and Mostyn Street from 8pm.
Parking – Parking will be available on Western Reserve from 4pm – gold coin donation to SES/Lions TBC.

Jungle City

Heartical Hi Powa

Amaru Tribe

OPENING NIGHT - Genesis Baroque & Trinity Choir
2026-03-20 20:00 - 22:00 | Castlemaine Town Hall, 25 Lyttleton st, Castlemaine, Victoria, 3450, Australia
Genesis Baroque brings the vibrant music of the 17th and 18th centuries to life with fresh intensity. The ensemble’s players are some of Australia’s most respected early-music specialists, known for their precision and generosity on stage. Their historically informed performances use period instruments to recapture the emotional immediacy of the Baroque masters. For this special concert, they are joined by the illustrious Choir of Trinity College, renowned for their precise and expressive consort singing. This debut performance by both companies in the Castlemaine Town Hall offers an evening of grandeur without distance — a dialogue between centuries, made intimate once again.
Expect an opening concert of radiant, timeless Baroque masterworks by Handel, Bach and Vivaldi guaranteed to set your spirit soaring.
This special 50th anniversary year concert will commence with the Festival Fanfare by Australian composer Peter Charles Rorke. The Festival commissioned the work, which premiered at the first Festival in 1976, performed by the Thompson Foundry Band.

Peter Charles Rorke Festival Fanfare
George Frideric HANDEL (arr. Robert King) Mr Handel’s Water Pieces
Allegro
Sarabande
Hornpipe
Johann Sebastian BACH Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D Major, BWV 1050
Allegro
Affettuoso
Allegro
Antonio VIVALDI Gloria in D, RV 589
Gloria
Et in terra pax hominibus
Laudamus te
Gratias agimus tibi
Domine Deus, Rex cœlestis
Domine Fili unigenite
Domine Deus, Agnus Dei
Qui tollis peccata mundi
Qui sedes a dexteram Patris
Quoniam tu solus sanctus
Cum Sancto Spiritu

This performance of Thompson’s Foundry Band is being sponsored by the family of the late Yui Kwong Mak in his memory. During Mak’s time studying engineering at Castlemaine Technical College in the early 1960s, Mak developed a lifelong admiration for the Band.

OPENING NIGHT – After Dark, Underground
2026-03-20 21:00 - 23:30 | Hargraves St, hargraves street, Castlemaine, Victoria, 3450, Australia
After 9pm, the Festival opens two parallel spaces that show Castlemaine after dark in a completely different light. Theatre Royal and the Maxi IGA underground car park run side by side — one historic, one unlikely — each offering its own take on contemporary electronic music.
At Theatre Royal, Intermood set the tone with their blend of instrumental psychedelic jazz and high-energy neo-disco — a sound sharpened in tight Naarm rooms and on festival stages. They’re joined by Harvey Sutherland (DJ Set), a producer, DJ and synthesist known for treating dance music as both craft and conversation. His sets — warm, detailed and quietly intricate — draw from disco, jazz and analogue electronics, creating something considered without losing its sense of play.
Running alongside is the space most out-of-towners never see coming: the Maxi IGA underground car park, reimagined as a one-night-only club.
The concrete stays concrete; the atmosphere shifts entirely.
Local selector Tom Barker works with percussive frameworks and low-frequency weight — the kind of set built from the ground up.
Naarm-based DJs Pjenné and Millú bring two distinct approaches to the underground: Pjenné’s hypnotic, trance-adjacent leftfield selections, and Millú’s spacious, progressive grooves shaped by years inside the city’s queer and experimental scenes.
Take either path — both lead somewhere worth staying.
As Castlemaine State Festival marks fifty years, Opening Night After Dark feels less like a spectacle and more like a shift in perspective: familiar places meeting new ideas, and the town showing the range it’s always had.

Tom Barker

Intermood

Harvey Sutherland [DJ Set]

DJs Pjenné and Millú

All At Once....
2026-03-21 | Castlemaine Goods Shed, 21 Kennedy St, Castlemaine, Victoria, 3450, Australia
All At Once… is a large-scale cane and bamboo installation that unfolds like a living system: a tall central dome surrounded by a constellation of smaller interconnected structures. Covered in translucent paper and textile membranes, the work appears almost organic – something part-built, part-grown, and open for people to gently move through.
Each space has its own character. Some look back – offering encounters with stories, textures and traces of the region’s history, shaped by its geology and biodiversity. Others hint toward what might come next. Visitors travel between these “nodes” at their own pace, discovering shifts in light, sound, scale and atmosphere.
At the heart of the installation sits the Now Dome – a generous central space designed for pause, presence and contribution. Here, people are invited (not instructed) to leave small drawings, notes, thoughts or quiet gestures on the walls, building a collective record over the festival’s duration. It’s a space that holds possibility rather than prescribing meaning.
Moving outward again, the final nodes gesture toward imagined futures – speculative, fragile, playful, uncertain. They don’t answer the questions they raise; instead, they create room for curiosity about what resilience, creativity and community might look like in the years ahead.
Wheelchair accessible throughout, All At Once… is less a linear narrative and more an ecosystem to wander through – a work shaped by material, light and the imaginations of those who meet it. Visitors may leave with a sense of connection, reflection, or simply enjoyment of the structure itself. The installation asks nothing in particular of you, and offers many ways in.

The Australian Archive of Play Memories
2026-03-21 09:00 - 17:00 | Castlemaine Market Building, 44 Mostyn St, Castlemaine, VIC, 3450, Australia
We are born with an innate drive to play. Ask someone to remember how they played as a child and it’s like unlocking a cupboard full of treasures and surprises. Play is necessary to lead a balanced life, yet as the pace of daily life accelerates, we are playing less – both as children and as adults.
Photographer Marylou Verberne began talking with people about play to understand how childhood is changing. Her “Australian Archive of Play Memories” is an ongoing project comprising photographic portraits of Australians, recorded interviews and play memory maps. The Creative Series is a special festival commission that presents photographic portraits of local creatives displayed alongside their play memory maps.
As we remember how and where we played as children, what else do we discover about ourselves? What surprises are in store for us? Encounter the play memories of others, be inspired to recall your own.
Sixteen photographic portraits by Marylou Verberne featuring local creatives.

Daylight in the Daydream and the Insect Moons
2026-03-21 10:00 - 17:00 | Cascade Gallery, 1A Fountain St, Maldon, Vic, 3463, Australia
Painter Printmaker Jeff Gardner lives and works in his studio in historic Maldon in central Victoria. Jeff uses traditional etching, drypoint and letterpress techniques to illustrate his compositions and creative verse.
His current exhibition – Daylight in the Daydream and the Insect Moons – explores Jeff’s interest in insects, their decorative influence on our lives and their psychological nurturing of our thoughts. His ambition is to express the unseen in cognitive representations of the world – a multifaceted artist who has long practise in the three P’s – Painting, Printmaking and Poetry.
GALLERY OPENING HOURS
10am-5pm

Treeshape - Book Launch and Workshop
2026-03-21 10:30 - 17:00 | Phee Broadway Theatre, 212 Baker st, Castlemaine, Victoria, 3450, Australia
Calling all tree lovers!
Trace Balla – much loved creator of the multi-award winning Rivertime, Leaflight and Rockhopping – has a new graphic novel about the trees in her life.
Come along for the launch of Trace’s new book and stay for a workshop.
Do you have a special tree in your life? In the hands-on workshop you can create a collage-cartoon-love letter-story about a particular tree or forest in your life.
The book launch and workshop are both free – workshop materials are provided.
10.30am – Book Launch – no need to register, just turn up!
11am-12pm – Workshop – please join waitlist here:
Register

The Situationist Travel Agency
2026-03-21 11:00 - 11:30 | Castlemaine Market Building, 44 Mostyn St, Castlemaine, VIC, 3450, Australia
Daydreaming subverts the world – Raoul Vaneigem, The Revolution of Everyday Life.
The Situationist Travel Agency (STAA) continues the tradition of subverting and repurposing city maps, adopted by the Situationist International in 1957. At STAA, we play with the conventions and banality of international travel. The familiar and yet strange spaces in between here and there, that can be both nowhere and anywhere at any time of the day or night.
Your time at the travel agency is designed to conjure a state of mind conducive to a playful, if potentially baffling, experience of walking in Castlemaine using a map from one of a choice of international destinations. Please note all walks offered are self-guided. Bring your baggage and be refreshed by this local/global adventure. We dare you.

The Glitterbug Club
2026-03-21 11:00 - 12:00 | Castlemaine Goods Shed, 21 Kennedy St, Castlemaine, Victoria, 3450, Australia
The tables are set. The audience is seated. The lights are on. But where are the stars of the show? The maître d’ and waiters of The Glitter Bug Club must save the day as the booked stars of the show have gone to the completely wrong venue…!
The show will go on and it’s up to them.
With wild costumes and slapped-on makeup, their unleashed talent creates a wild and wacky show full of fun, laughter, dancing and a bit of kid karaoke. Masquerading as divas, contortionists, Spanish dancers, mind readers and good ol’ country singers, the staff hope that the kids don’t discover that the real talent didn’t make it.
Presented by Fenestra Theatre
Cast – Natalie Carr, Kevin Dee, Tim Ratcliffe
Originally written and performed by – Jo Windred, Matt Rodd, Tim Ratcliffe

In the Company of Small Things: Workshops
2026-03-21 11:00 - 14:00 | Buda Heritage House & Gardens, 42 Hunter St, Castlemaine, VIC, 3450, Australia
Pause, ponder… and get making at Buda this State Festival.
In the Company of Small Things is a series of exhibitions and installations that invite audiences to slow down and look closer. This series of four workshops are led by key members of the Buda team – Sarah Frazer, House Curator and Ryan Garratt, Garden Curator – and the artists Dianne Longley and Clayton Tremlett.
Workshop #1 Diane Longley: Illuminated Flowers – 16 years plus
Saturday 21 March 11am-2pm
Tickets
Workshop #2 Diane Longley: Concertina Books – Children 5 years plus
Sunday 22 March 11am-2pm
Tickets
Workshop #3 Nature Journaling with Sarah Frazer & Ryan Garratt
Tuesday 24 March 11am-2pm
Tickets
Workshop #4 Clayton Tremlett: Family Portrait Linocut Printmaking
Saturday 28 March 11am-2pm
Tickets

Life with Birds - Workshops & Walks
2026-03-21 11:00 - 14:00 | Newstead Arts Hub, 8A Tivey St, Newstead, VIC, 3462, Australia
An immersive celebration of the birds and woodland ecosystems of central Victoria curated by Geoff Park.
Life with Birds brings together a distinguished range of collaborators – writers, artists, photographers, sound recordists, field naturalists, scientists. The various events enable participants to enjoy and learn whilst on the path to a deeper appreciation of the richness of our bird life – which is facing many challenges, especially that of global climate change.
The proceeds from this diverse and rich program of events will be dedicated to a community designed, citizen science woodland bird conservation project in central Victoria.
Workshop #1 Carrie Tiffany – Mateship with Birds – 15 years plus
Saturday 21st March $100 11am – 2pm
Carrie, a former park ranger, has twenty years’ experience as a researcher, writer, editor and teacher of creative writing. Her novel Mateship with Birds won the inaugural 2013 Stella Prize. Geoff will lead an in conversation with Carrie, before she leads a bird-themed creative writing workshop. No writing experience is needed.
Book Now
Workshop #2 Richard Weatherly – A brush with woodland birds – 15 years plus
Sunday 22nd March $100 11am – 2pm
Richard is an iconic Australian artist, conservationist and innovative farmer. With over fifty-five years of professional experience, Richard will draw on his acclaimed illustrated works, such as The Fairy-Wrens and A Brush with Birds, as he leads this workshop. Materials provided, though participants are welcome to bring their own
Book Now
Workshop #3 Patrick Kavanagh – The Art and craft of bird photography – 15 years plus
Thursday 26th March $100 8am–12pm
In this workshop Patrick, an accomplished nature photographer with a special ‘focus’ on woodland birds of the Newstead district and their habitats, will offer personal tuition on photographic techniques and field craft. NB Starts and ends at Newstead Art Hub. Involves gentle walking in an outdoor environment. BYO Camera.
Book Now
Walk: Lawrie Conole – The ‘Difficult Bird Search’ – 15 years plus
Monday 23rd March $20 7.30am–12.30pm
The Newstead district, an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA), is home to a suite of ‘difficult’ birds – cryptic, declining and just plain hard to find. Lawrie will introduce you to these characters and share search techniques before you venture out to a selection of local sites. Will you encounter some of these characters?
Book Now

Orchestra of Extinction
2026-03-21 11:00 - 16:00 | Tute’s Cottage, 29 Greenhill Avenue, 29 Greenhill Road, Castlemaine, VIC, 3450, Australia
Orchestra of Extinction is a long term project in which Forest Keegel and her collaborator sound artist Amanda King explore the habitat of threatened species. During immersive field trips they gather audio visual material that encapsulates each habitat as well as environmental traces such as plant saps, beeswax, soil and leaves. What they discover is then collated and housed in modified old radiogram cabinets, encrusted with habitat residues, emitting signals of sound and light to elusively represent each disappearing species. Each cabinet becomes an archive; forming a record of what King and Keegel have learnt through research, time walking, observing and documenting as well as connecting and speaking with scientists and local experts.
This contemporary interpretation of a Cabinet of Curiosities or Wunderkammer, highlights the vulnerability of threatened species and juxtaposes ‘recorded habitats’ within the historic Colonial house setting, of one of the oldest homes in Castlemaine Tutes Cottage.

Salon @ Portal Gallery House
2026-03-21 11:00 - 16:00 | Top of Church Street, No. 30 Chewton, 30 Church Street, Chewton, Victoria, 3451, Australia
An invitation to experience exquisite music and unique art forms with Laura Vaughan, Joel Sorensen, Hilary Finch + Zoe Amor
Portal Gallery House presents an intimate Salon with solo recitals by world renowned musician Laura Vaughan playing Baroque viola da gamba and its rare and beautiful cousin, the baryton.
Continuum moves fluidly through centuries of music written for these instruments, each composer revealing a distinct facet of their expressive world. New works by Paolo Pandolfo, Brooke Green and Vaughan herself extend the living tradition and expressive power of these instruments into the twenty-first century, weaving a continuous thread of emotion and sound across time. These notions of timeless resonance and creative kinship are shared by artists Joel Sorensen, Hilary Finch and Zoe Amor. Their sculptures, photographic landscapes, drawings and paintings have an affinity with compositions that create an intimate setting for the imagination. Seating only twenty guests, audiences are invited to linger in the Salon and listen, to experience the prismatic worlds that art offers and engage in a living, breathing space of artistic conversation. Refreshments included on entry to the Portal Gallery House which is also open by appointment.
Salon Performance
Saturday 21 Mar, 11:00am – SOLD OUT
Saturday 21 Mar, 5:00pm – SOLD OUT
Saturday 28 Mar, 11:00am – SOLD OUT
Saturday 28 Mar, 5:00pm – SOLD OUT

Groundswell
2026-03-21 11:00 - 16:00 | Castlemaine Art Museum, 14 Lyttleton St, Castlemaine, VIC, 3450, Australia
In order to effect change, you need a groundswell, a groundswell of opinion, a surge of emotion, a desire for new thinking.
This exhibition celebrates artists who want to build a groundswell for change whether that be environmental, cultural, personal or political. The exhibition pairs historical objects including embroidery, ceramics and metalwork from the Castlemaine Art Museum collection with work from contemporary artists. It builds on the Castlemaine Art Museum exhibition Wildflowers curated by Sarah Frazer and the recent Mount Alexander Shire Council public art commission awarded to Laura Woodward – both of which celebrate the woman founders of the Castlemaine Art Museum.
Contemporary local artists include Arkeria Armstrong, Aunty Kerri Douglas, Melinda Harper, Judith van Heeren , Kate Just, Ruth O’Leary, Anna Read, Anna Schwann and lIka White.

TRACES
2026-03-21 11:00 - 16:00 | The Stables – Rear Cantwells Real Estate, 220 Barker Street, Castlemaine, Vic, 3450, Australia
This collaborative work explores how memory leaves its imprint — in the body, the air, and the spaces we inhabit. Unfolding as a sequence of fragments — gestures, melodies and moments that dissolve and reappear – like echoes of a story retold.
Dargaville’s music brings a haunting acoustic to the space, creating a shifting landscape that mirrors the visual choreography of Dow’s photography with intensity and restraint.
The result is immersive, emotional, and quietly daring — a vivid conversation asking what remains when everything else fades.
Tim Dargaville Sound
https://speedyassets.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/csf/2026/Trace-X.wav

Where Stone Meets Sky
2026-03-21 11:00 - 16:00 | Castlemaine Art Museum, 14 Lyttleton St, Castlemaine, VIC, 3450, Australia
The installation concept, developed by two local Castlemaine artists, Alvin Darcy (Yorta Yorta and Taungurung, Ngarigo and Walbunja) and Brodie Ellis, has both artists working in in parallel.
They created two independent installations – exhibited in dialogue – while researching the Leanganook/Mt Alexander mountain site on Djaara Country in Central Victoria.
This parallel practice approach acknowledges the urgency of environmental concerns and the need to work together toward ecosystem care and interspecies adaptation.
Where Stone Meets Sky positions itself at the intersection of decolonial practice, environmental advocacy, and contemporary art, working toward more sustainable and equitable approaches to artistic engagement with Country

Process and Printmaking - Demonstration
2026-03-21 11:00 - 17:00 | Cascade Gallery, 1A Fountain St, Maldon, Vic, 3463, Australia
Jeff Gardner’s Printmaking Studio is situated in a converted Sunday School adjacent to Cascade Art Gallery. Inside – an extraordinary collection of printing presses and technologies Jeff has gathered over many years.
On both Saturdays of the Festival Jeff will demonstrate a variety of printmaking techniques on his beloved presses. Jeff’s printmaking practice includes works on paper as well as limited editions of books of poetry. “Drawing an etching is a bit like meditation and you invariably enter in to the ‘quiet zone’ of inner thought.”
STUDIO OPENING HOURS
Saturday 21 & Sunday 22: 11am – 5pm
Saturday 28: 11am – 1pm
Sunday 29: 11am – 5pm

Surprise Chef Collage Party
2026-03-21 11:00 - 17:00 | Castlemaine Art Museum, 14 Lyttleton St, Castlemaine, VIC, 3450, Australia
This party takes cut and paste to the next level!
A salad of sensory play, piecing together movement, colour and texture to make a delicious collage. Using multimedia to blend a playful approach to making, this will be an ecstatic melange of creative collaboration for kids and their carers.
All materials provided including pre-cut images to play with.
Artist: Randi Wagner
Please book your FREE place here

Someone in the Dark
2026-03-21 12:00 - 13:00 | The Goods Shed, 21 Kennedy St, Castlemaine, VIC, 3450, Australia
Created by Black Hole Theatre, Someone in the Dark is an immersive adventure for children and families – a gently spooky, wonder-filled performance about facing fears and finding courage. Set in the wild and designed to be experienced as a small group journey, the work combines puppetry, soundscape, and visual storytelling. Children step into a mysterious world guided by light, shadow and imagination, where bravery means curiosity rather than confrontation.
Developed with care and creativity, Someone in the Dark offers young audiences a rare theatrical experience – one that invites them to explore uncertainty safely, supported by skilled performers who understand the power of play.

In the Company of Small Things: Exhibitions
2026-03-21 12:00 - 16:00 | Buda Heritage House & Gardens, 42 Hunter St, Castlemaine, VIC, 3450, Australia
Pause, ponder… and go rummaging at Buda this State Festival.
In the Company of Small Things is a series of exhibitions and installations that invite audiences to slow down and look closer.
Discover new artworks by local artists Dianne Longley (Trentham) and Clayton Tremlett (Castlemaine), interpreting Buda’s House and Garden in new and exciting ways. Follow Dianne’s marvellous creations as they wind through the house and out into the garden. Stop by the Garden Pavilion for Clayton’s colourful new take on old images. Circle back to surprising treasures from Buda’s historical collection: 19th century botanical specimens, nature studies, sketchbooks and an array of small, flora-inspired items hand-crafted by members of the Leviny family who once resided here.
Pick up an In the Company of small Things Map at Reception and join the fun seeking out this special sprinkling of offerings.
This project honours the craft, care and attention to detail that define both the site and the distinct practices of each artist. Each work asks what we overlook in the everyday, and how wonder often hides in plain sight.
In the Company of Small Things is a quiet act of reverence – for history, creative spirit and the tiny gestures that connect us to both.
Exhibitions is included in Entry.
Entrance Fee $15 Adult $12 Concession $5 children (under 5yrs free) $36 Family

Just One in the Crowd: Harley Parker Photography - Book Launch
2026-03-21 12:00 - 19:00 | Taproom – Shedshaker Brewing, 9 Walker Street, Castlemaine, Vic, 3450, Australia
Carson Country Band, La de Das, Spectrum, Wendy Saddington, Chain
On his eighteenth birthday Harley Parker was given a camera by his grandfather, and went to a music club, the Thumpin’ Tum, for the first time.
His love of photography and music took him on a journey of discovery and delight.
Just One in the Crowd is an unparalleled collection of photos and memories that capture the spirit and essence of the music scene in Melbourne in the early Seventies.
A selection of Harley’s photos will be exhibited at the Taproom during the State Festival, and the publication Just One in the Crowd: Harley Parker Photography, will be officially launched there on Wednesday March 25.
OFFICIAL BOOK LAUNCH: WEDNESDAY 25 MARCH, 5.30PM

Resonant Heart
2026-03-21 13:00 - 2026-03-22 14:30 | Castlemaine Town Hall, 25 Lyttleton st, Castlemaine, Victoria, 3450, Australia
A mesmerising kaleidoscope of multi-lingual poetry, folk songs, movement, and ritual.
The Resonant Heart – where diverse worlds and traditions meet in harmony – is a multi-disciplinary ensemble who have united to share and create from their collective cultural and artistic knowledge. Comprising Sudanese poet Nyaluelit ‘Lizzy’ Kuoth, Indian sitarist Sarita McHarg, Iranian artists Vahideh Eisaei and Elnaz Sheshgelani, and the Balkan and Sephardic Jewish music trio SARAY Iluminado Femme, featuring vocalist Nela Trifkovic, and instrumentalists Irine Vela and Kelly Dowall, the ensemble unveils an enchanting blend of cultural, poetic, and musical magic. Experience world that is simultaneously different and unexpected, yet intimately familiar.

Marshall McGuire & Genevieve Lacey
2026-03-21 14:00 - 17:00 | Uniting Church, 24 Lyttleton Street, Castlemaine, Victoria, 3450, Australia
Two of Australia’s most revered musicians — harpist Marshall McGuire and recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey — reunite for Bower Birds, a performance of intimate conversation between strings and breath. The pair, long-time collaborators, bring decades of shared history to the stage, performing music that flutters between Baroque delicacy and contemporary invention. Each piece feels like a small offering — a fragment gathered for its colour, texture or memory. McGuire and Lacey’s synergy is effortless: both are known for taking their instruments beyond expectation, pairing exquisite precision with warmth and wit. “Playing with Genevieve,” McGuire once said, “feels like walking into sunlight — the dialogue is never rehearsed, only revealed.” Bower Birds is music as friendship, craftsmanship and quiet daring. Presented within the serene acoustics of Castlemaine Uniting Church, this concert promises a meditative journey through centuries of composition, made new in every moment of breath and pluck.

Parvyn Singh & Josh Bennett
2026-03-21 18:00 - 19:00 | Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Maldon, 50 High Street, Maldon, VIC, 3463, Australia
Vocalist Parvyn Singh and multi-instrumentalist Josh Bennett unite in an exquisite concert blending Indian classical, folk and contemporary influences. Together they create a sound that is as intimate as it is expansive — shimmering sitar, soulful voice, hypnotic rhythm. Longtime collaborators on stage and in life, Parvyn and Josh are renowned for their effortless interplay and emotional honesty. Their performances move between meditative ragas and uplifting folk tunes, inviting listeners into a shared space of stillness and joy. Presented as part of the Festival’s Music in Churches series, this concert finds new resonance within the acoustically rich Holy Trinity Church Maldon — a space built for reverence and connection. The result is music that transcends genre and language, guided by deep musicianship and a sense of shared wonder.

Andrea Lam and the Australian String Quartet
2026-03-21 19:00 - 21:30 | Castlemaine Town Hall, 25 Lyttleton st, Castlemaine, Victoria, 3450, Australia
Exhilarating, multi award-winning pianist Andrea Lam made her debut at 13 years of age with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
As a soloist she has performed with major orchestras and leading conductors in Australasia, Japan, China and the United States as well as recording acclaimed albums of contemporary and classical piano works, with ‘Piano Diary’ winning the 2025 ARIA for ‘Best Classical Album’. Her role as the classical expert on ABC TV’s The Piano – Australia established Andrea as a much-loved music ambassador.
A keen and sought-after chamber musician, Andrea was pianist of New York’s Claremont Trio from 2010 – 2020 and is a frequent guest of premier chamber music festivals around the world. In her first ever Castlemaine appearance, Andrea will share some of her favourite solo piano works including by Chopin, then will be joined by the esteemed Australian String Quartet, to present Brahms’ Piano Quintet, one of the best-loved piano quintets of all time.
The members of the Australian String Quartet are privileged to perform on a matched set of Guadagnini instruments handcrafted by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini between c.1743 -1784 in Turin and Piacenza, Italy.
In a night to remember, experience the flair and verve, unique blend of passion and lyrical beauty that Andrea brings to the intimate world of the solo piano and chamber music.

Babooshka
2026-03-21 19:30 - 21:00 | Phee Broadway Theatre, 212 Baker st, Castlemaine, Victoria, 3450, Australia
Babooshka is a joyous, theatrical homage to one of pop’s most singular voices — Kate Bush. Performed by The KB Band, the show brings Bush’s world of drama, poetry and play to life with fearless energy and lush musicianship. Expect the classics — “Running Up That Hill”, “Wuthering Heights”, “Cloudbusting” — alongside deep cuts and reimagined arrangements. It’s both tribute and interpretation: a celebration of the artist who made art-pop mystical and strange again. Babooshka invites audiences not just to listen, but to inhabit the imaginative, emotional world Kate Bush created. With vocals that soar and a band that understands the eccentric heartbeat of Bush’s music, Babooshka channels longing and nostalgia into performance art.

SELLOUT HIT OF THE 2025 CASTLEMAINE FRINGE FESTIVAL

Man Out Of Time
2026-03-21 20:00 - 21:30 | Theatre Royal, 30 Hargraves St, Castlemaine, Victoria, 3450, Australia
Few voices cut as deep into Australian rock as Broderick Smith’s — storyteller, rebel, poet, and heart of The Dingoes. Man Out of Time: The Broderick Smith Songbook gathers his closest collaborators and admirers to reinterpret his catalogue with reverence and raw energy.
Across two stirring sets, musicians revisit songs that shaped generations — “Boy on the Run”, “Shine A Light”, “Ruby In The Snow” — weaving anecdotes and archival reflections through the performance. The evening honours both the power and fragility of an artist who gave everything to the stage. This isn’t nostalgia; it’s renewal.
Each performer brings their own voice to Brod’s stories of outlaws, dreamers and the stubborn hope that defines regional life. Expect grit, humour and tenderness in equal measure — a reminder that music, like memory, never really fades.
Lineup:

Brett Garsed – guitar
Freya Josephine Hollick – vocals/guitar
Ian Collard – vocals/harp/guitar
Kevin Bennett – vocals/guitar
Lisa Miller – vocals
Richard Tankard – keyboards/vocals
Jeremy Alsop – bass
Tony Floyd – drums

Creative Team:

Doug Falconer – Creative Director
Linda Sproul – Producer
Nigel MacLean – Music Director/guest violin
Robyn Lewis – Producer

Hot Moves No Mercy
2026-03-21 20:30 - 22:30 | Hargraves St, hargraves street, Castlemaine, Victoria, 3450, Australia
Welcome to Hot Moves No Mercy — the underground dance battle where locals bring the drama, crank the volume, and settle scores with spandex, sweat, and zero emotional regulation.
Tired of polite claps and polished talent shows, the Momagers have dragged their grudges into a dimly lit regional carpark for a full-throttle feud served in 8-counts. Expect unhinged characters, improvised chaos, surprise villains, plot twists no one rehearsed, and audience members who become part of the show.
It’s gritty. It’s sweaty. It’s pantomime on steroids. Come for the show. Stay for the party.
-Audience will be sitting or standing on a concrete floor (accessible seating available upon request)
-45 min show plus dance party
