Moorabool Shire Council, VIC
Hide + Seek Music Festival
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The Project
Hide + Seek Music Festival is a free mid-winter music festival sharing the artists and unique venues only found in the Moorabool Shire. Featuring over 200 artists across 20 venues in regional towns Blackwood, Gordon, Bacchus Marsh and Ballan.
Moorabool Shire Council worked with the Live Music Office to deliver Moorabool Live and Local including a series of micro-festivals highlighting the benefits of presenting live music in local businesses. In developing Hide + Seek Music Festival local musicians and music industry experts were invited to be part of the working group to shape the festival. The festival provided a presentation outcome for the inaugural Young and Local program. Young and Local invited local musicians aged 12 to 25 to be part of a skills development program culminating in a youth led event as part of the Ballan event. With 16 Young musicians from across the shire, including our more rural communities of Gordon, Greendale and Morrisons, participating in a Young and Local and were paid for their performance as part of the festival. For many this was their first professionally paid opportunity.
The festival also created local employment opportunities and economic benefits, with two local curators to oversee the develop of the program and over 90 artists paid to perform as part of the festival. The township's venues and businesses were visited by over 2000 extra patrons, with most visitors spending between $20 to $100 in local businesses.
Other community outcomes included:
- Supporting over 150 local young artists through outdoor projections
- Activation of over 20 sites and venues across the Blackwood, Gordon, Bacchus Marsh and Gordon including several new music venues
- A positive social outcome for our communities with the Reactivation of local public spaces and halls providing communities with an opportunity for celebration and social connection after the challenges of the last few years.
- An outdoor activation program celebrating including a Rock n Roll tour of the Blackwood Cemetery, NAIDOC week artist talks and projections highlighting our local nationally and internationally renowned First Nations artists Barry Gilson, Aunty Marlene Gilson and photographer Wayne Quilliam.
Hide + Seek Music Festival presented a rare opportunity to discover new music and one of a kind venue and provided excellent economic benefits for the community.
The Award Category
This award recognises local government projects which:
- create vibrant, cohesive communities that use arts and culture to support community
- embrace wellbeing, diversity and encourage social inclusion through community participation in artistic activities
- leverage arts and culture to improve community sustainability and increase local economic opportunity.
Arts and culture add value to Australia and benefit our economy, health and wellbeing, society and education by:
- fostering opportunities for the enjoyment of the arts through broad community engagement
- establishing local arts hubs for community arts, performances and exhibitions
- supporting arts initiatives that foster inclusion and skill development.