The Village Winter Festival 2018

Welcome to the fifth

Village Winter Festival

Central Goldfields’ Beating ‘Art

Saturday 23 June, 2018
2pm – midnight

Newstead Racecourse
Newstead

Light your creative fire at the fifth Village Winter Festival as the community of the Central Goldfields gathers to celebrate the Winter solstice in spectacular style.

Go to the Facebook Event for the latest updates.

Tickets

This year, we really want people to book in advance (even the free ones).
$15 adults
$10 concession
$5 youth (13-17)
FREE: Kids (up to 12)
FREE: Early-birds: if you are struggling financially, you can come to the festival for no charge if you book on-line by 17 June and arrive at the festival between 2pm and 3pm. Why? Inclusion is one of The Village’s core values, and we don’t want money to be a barrier.
Book Now

What’s On?

Fire, Acts, Art, Music

Whether you are into hot tunes or hot rods or something in between, there will be plenty to keep you entertained and involved.

Local artists take centre stage throughout the festival from the moment gates open at 2pm right through to the midnight wrap-up. Plus a few superb morsels from beyond the region.

Throughout the festival, spark your curiosity and explore the alternative utopian world of The Village created amongst Indian wedding tents, random caravans and warming communal fires. Visit Gherkin Khan’s Amusement Alcazar, pick up a bargain at the Dutch-inspired, kids-run Kleedjes Markt and show off your best friend in the Famous Village Dog Show. There is also a fascinating Pearly White Installation, a unique storytelling boat and whacky theatrics in Wrongtown.

Stay tuned for the full schedule. Get updates as they happen through the Facebook Event

Learn more about The Village Winter Festival in this video:

Fire Spectacular

7pm

The Fire Spectacular will breathe pyrotechnics into the cool, crisp air. Much more than fireworks, this multi-dimensional show is a community phenomenon on a grand scale. Anyone can contribute to this spectacle by contributing messages that will be burned in kilns created by Castlemaine artist Nici Wright. Local pyrotechnics and special effects expert John Sanderson will paint the sky, choreographing colour to music.

Were you one of the lucky few that saw the fire spectacular show in development in 2017 at Newstead Racecourse? This video is just a taster! Wait til you see the full show!

Get Involved

The Village Festival so much more than a festival for the audience to be spectators. It is much more fun to participate, and there are myriad opportunities from pre-festival workshops to 10 Minute Dance Parties, from dog costuming to boat building and from getting up on stage to volunteering.

More details here

Food and Drink

The imaginary love child of Nigella and the Swedish chef, The World Kitchen is a performative food stage that hosts food demonstrations from the serious to the spurious. This year The World Kitchen hosts a number of local cooks from a refugee background, you can sample traditional food from Malaysia and Laos, and even get on-stage in MonsterChef featuring the ever-famous Emily Bloom as “Chef Peter”.

Local roasting doyenne “This Little Piggy” will be offering roast lamb or chicken and tender vegetables. The Village Tavern will be serving mouth-watering, heart-warming home-made soups, curries and other delicacies. There will be delicious dough-nuts, sumptuous snacks, plus a great bar with beverages from the surrounding region.

If you are staying overnight, there will be breakfast available on Sunday morning.

Getting There

Newstead is a thriving town in Central Victoria.

It is about 1.5 hours north-west of Melbourne, 15 minutes from Castlemaine and close to Maldon, Maryborough, Daylesford and 45 minutes from Bendigo.

By Bicycle:

Arrive at the Village Winter Festival by bicycle and get a free drink. Plus you’ll get the best park!

By Car or Motorbike:

The festival site is easily accessible by private transport. Parking is free and plentiful, but please car pool. If you are looking for a lift, or can offer one, please complete this carpooling form.

By public transport:

Vline do operate a coach to Newstead, but not very often. Your best bet is to get to Castlemaine Railway Station, from where The Village Festival will operate shuttle buses (see below). Trains run from Southern Cross in Melbourne at least hourly all through the day and evening. It’s a very pleasant journey of less than 1.5 hours and you can use your Myki card. The last train back to Melbourne leaves Castlemaine at 9.49pm, meaning you can see the full Fire Spectacular before heading back, or stay the night and catch a Sunday train back (about one every hour). Use the PTV Journey Planner

Trains from Bendigo leave approximately hourly to Castlemaine and take 22 minutes.

Shuttle Buses:

The Village Festival will be running shuttle buses from Castlemaine Railway Station. We will meet every Vline train arriving in Castlemaine (at least up until 7pm). We will provide transport according to demand, so be sure to let us know when you would like to travel when booking online

Staying Overnight

We encourage you to stay overnight. After all, the festival will be going until midnight. There is plenty of room for camping and caravans. Cost of unpowered camping is $10 per site (up to 4 people per site). There are toilets and showers on site and a sewage dump point. No powered sites.

There will be yummy breakfast in the morning too!

Our supporters

The Village Festival is a not-for-profit community arts organisations based in Fryerstown. We see our role as facilitating a gift from the local community back to our community. We could not put on the festival without support from: