One of Australia's longest-running free music festivals is set to hit the shore of St Kilda again this summer.
After two years of Covid disruption and adaptation, the St Kilda Festival is back and bigger than ever in 2023 for its 42nd iteration. What this means is a huge weekend of free Australian live music, family-friendly activities, food and markets, drawing crowds into the foreshore, gardens and streets of St Kilda.
The Festival will kick off on Saturday 18 February, with a focus on first nations artists and family-friendly programming, titled with First Peoples First, followed by our traditional Big Festival Sunday on 19 February.
St Kilda Festival 2023
- Saturday 18 – Sunday 19 February 2023
- Hoodoo Gurus, Confidence Man, Christine Anu and more
- Full program to be announced on 18 January
- St Kilda Foreshore and surrounds, St Kilda
- stkildafestival.com.au for more info
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Big numbers and big-name artists
St Kilda Festival Lead, Sullivan Patten, fully expects a return to the big festival numbers of pre-pandemic celebrations.
“This is our first big re-emergence after Covid,” they said. “February 2022 was presented in a more spaced-out format, with smaller events over nine days. We’re heading back into that big festival format where we’d historically expect around 400,000 visitors on Big Festival Sunday alone, from Melbourne and beyond. And now with the inclusion of First Peoples First on the Saturday, we’re bringing together an incredible weekend-long celebration of the best of Australian music. Thanks to additional funding support from the Victorian Government, we’ve been able to bolster the programming budget to get a few more big-name headliners, and we’re pretty excited that we’re able to present multiple stages and around 70 artists.”
First Peoples First day will feature Christine Anu headlining a lineup of feature artists programmed by the Archie Roach Foundation, including a tribute to the late Uncle Archie, who played St Kilda Festival 13 times, making him the festival’s most-appeared artist.
Headliners for Big Festival Sunday include Hoodoo Gurus and Confidence Man, with more than 50 additional acts to be announced on 18 January.
A diverse program to discover
St Kilda Festival 2023: Hoodoo Gurus, Confidence Man, Christine Anu lead new expanded program
The full program line-up will be announced January 18, with a few headliners announced soon. The St Kilda Festival has long been a platform for emerging artists to find their feet in the industry and play alongside some big names. For 2023, artists will perform at the Main Stage at the foreshore, O’Donnell Gardens and The Push Stage, Catani Gardens Stage, Triangle Stage, Locals Stage on Acland Street, and the New Music Competition stage on Fitzroy Street, as well as roving musicians, entertainers and buskers.
“It offers a real range of live music, with different genres and feels,” Sullivan said. “I’m really excited about the line-up. We’ve got a lot of great up-and-coming acts and emerging artists, programmed alongside more established performers and some highly-recognisable names. Hopefully you’ll see some you already know and discover some new favourites.”
The New Music Competition (NMC) has been a key feature of the festival for many years. While they had to pivot to digital last year, this coming festival sees them take to their own dedicated live stage in a prime location on Fitzroy Street.
“Emerging artists are encouraged to submit their music to us, we whittle the submissions down to the top 10 to perform at the Festival, and then the crowd favourite goes home with $5,000 and a spot on the main stage for the next year,” Sullivan said. “It’s a broad range of up-and-coming talent. We select the top 10 on a criteria of sound, diversity, songwriting craft and how exciting they feel to the panel, and we’re so looking forward to seeing them all perform live on the New Music Stage this year.”
Showcasing a vibrant community
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While the focus is on live music, the festival also sees the closure of several roads to become pedestrian promenades and markets. The site extends across a kilometre, featuring an eclectic mix of performers, demonstrations, workshops, market stalls and family activities. And when it comes to the array of food, there will be something for everyone.
There’ll be extended trading along Fitzroy St and Acland St, showcasing the existing brick-and-mortar businesses, and also itinerant traders with market stalls and food trucks.
Continuing the legacy of supporting and highlighting community groups is vital to the St Kilda Festival.
“As a community festival it’s important to offer community groups the chance to be involved as well,” Sullivan said. “Everything from dance groups to local fishing groups and sporting groups. It’s a festival with a 42-year history, so it’s seen changes that are reflective of how St Kilda has evolved over the years. Each year we’re trying to adapt, adjust and grow with the climate of the industry and community. It started as a small community festival and a celebration of live music, which have always been at its core, and that mindset is important to why people value it and its place in the festival landscape. We would never want to lose that.”
Welcoming accessibility
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In fact, a number of changes to the festival this year will further improve access in line with this community-minded spirit of inclusion.
“We’ve been fortunate to receive a grant from the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria to build upon our accessibility,” Sullivan said. “We’ll have a significant focus on that. We’ve been able to undertake a festival review with access consultants. We’re adding Auslan to the stages, will be providing some shuttle buses and buggies that can ferry people with access needs, creating some ‘chillout’ spaces and quiet zones, providing mobility equipment hire and a more dedicated space in O’Donnell Gardens to improve physical access and ease of flow for people with prams and small children, rather than battling it out in the crowds down by the beach.”
The St Kilda Festival is pulling out all the stops to be a welcoming weekend. And if there’s great weather, it’s the perfect opportunity to come on down and see the festival at its very best again.
The festival runs from Saturday 18 – Sunday 19 February 2023 and the full program will be announced January 18. For the latest updates, head to the St Kilda Festival website.
This article was made in partnership with St Kilda Festival.
