The 2024 Castlemaine Jazz Festival is gearing up to build upon the stellar success of last year’s festival, and is looking to exhibit the best established and emerging talent of the Australian Jazz Scene.
This year’s festival will take place across the June long weekend (June 7-9) and features 38 bands performing in 6 iconic venues, including the historic Theatre Royal, Castlemaine Bowling Club, Phee Broadway Theatre, Coolroom at the Northern Arts Hotel and this year two nights at the very popular Boomtown Winery.
Opening night at the Goods Shed will be a community focused event, featuring local artists such as the Thompsons Foundry Band and the Castlemaine Secondary College Stage band (division winners in the 2024 Generations In Jazz). Also featured on the night will be a community choir extravaganza led by Adam Przewlocki (Choir of Hard Knocks) featuring the Divine Divas, Rainbow Voices, Marcapellas, Mainesong and the Castlemaine Secondary College Vocal Ensemble. The main program features many established artists including Tamara Murphy, Ade Ish, Shirazz and a gamut of big bands in the historic Theatre Royal. Headlining at the Phee Broadway on Saturday night will be singer, trumpeter, songwriter and three times ARIA award winner Vince Jones. Who this year will be celebrating the 50th year of a long applauded career.
“The committee has been working hard this year to bring an even more exciting festival to Jazz enthusiasts, and we can’t wait to bring this to the community.” says Lyndal McClure, President of the Castlemaine Jazz Festival. “We are also so excited about our paste up project which aims to showcase our artists at this year’s festival as installations along Castlemaine’s main street. It is the first time ever that we have done something like this and we think it will add to the overall feeling of the festival.”
