Castlemaine State Festival enters voluntary administration

After suffering heavy losses in 2023, the future of the long-running regional arts festival is currently unknown.
A padlocked gate. Castlemaine State Festival

One of Victoria’s longest-running and most respected multi-arts festivals, the biennial Castlemaine State Festival, has entered into voluntary administration.

The news was announced in an email from the Festival Board, sent just before 5pm last Thursday 28 March, at a time when many people were already switching off their computers and leaving work in preparation for the Easter break.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts