A night of local music history is heading to one of St Kilda's most beloved cinemas, and it's the kind of double bill that doesn't come around often.
St Kilda Rocks lands at the Astor Theatre on 5 June 2026, pairing two documentaries that together capture a defining era of Melbourne’s live music scene.
The session features Punkline, a film documenting the legendary Crystal Ballroom, the St Kilda venue that shaped the city’s music culture through the 70s and 80s by hosting artists including Nick Cave, The Cure, New Order and the Dead Kennedys.
St Kilda Rocks
- 5 June 2026, Astor Theatre, St Kilda
- Tickets $17.50, here
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
View this post on Instagram
Alongside it screens Last Drinks, a film chronicling the final days of the Prince of Wales Hotel before its first major renovation in 1996, shown publicly for only the second time and marking its 30th anniversary. The Prince of Wales also holds a deeper slice of local broadcast history; it was the location of PBS 106.7FM’s very first transmissions back in 1979.
The evening opens with a live PBS broadcast of Stone Love with Richie 1250 and special guests before the screenings get underway, and wraps with a Q&A featuring the filmmakers and producers behind both films.
Stone Love is itself hitting a milestone; the show celebrates 20 years on Melbourne’s independent airwaves this year, having launched on PBS 106.7FM back in 2006.
The live broadcast is free and runs from 5pm to 7pm, bringing a string of guests to the Astor stage, with Sugar Fed Leopards, Ella Thompson, Esther Henderson, Plazza, Loretta Miller, Simone Page Jones & Jules Pascoe, Jason Goodman and Brenda.
Both The Crystal Ballroom and The Prince of Wales Hotel hold serious cultural weight in St Kilda’s history, and the session is framed as a raw, unfiltered look at the people and places that defined the suburb’s music scene across that era.
Last Drinks in particular is a rare chance to see a film that has barely had a public airing in three decades. The documentary digs into the community that formed around The Prince in the 1980s and 90s; the people, the culture, and what was lost when Fitzroy Street shifted with the 1996 renovation.
St Kilda Rocks is part of the broader St Kilda Film Festival, running from 4 to 14 June 2026 and showcasing 190+ films across the Palais Theatre, the Astor Theatre and St Kilda Town Hall.
For more information and to book tickets, head here.
This article was made in partnership with St Kilda Film Festival.
