Perseverance pays off for Melbourne Cabaret Festival

After six years of lobbying while operating on the smell of an oily rag, state funding for the festival has finally been confirmed.

Rob Mills is Surprisingly Good is one of 29 shows in the program for the 2015 Melbourne Cabaret Festival.

First staged in 2010, the Melbourne Cabaret Festival has seen rapid audience growth over its five festivals to date, with ticketed attendees growing by 37% within its first two years. By 2013, when the fourth festival was held, that figure had increased by 375% – indicative of the growing popularity of cabaret nationally.

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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