5 Reasons to Get Lost...
COMPILED BY RICHARD CORNISH AND SARAH LANG.
1. ChillOut Festival
From humble beginnings in 1997, ChillOut Festival has grown to become Australia's largest Queer Country Pride festival. After the success of the first ChillOut day at The Olde Winery, Musk Vale in 1997, members of Springs Connections and others in the LGBTI community were keen to do it again. This March Labour Day long weekend, ChillOut Festival returns to Daylesford and Hepburn Springs with an extraordinary lineup of events. This includes: The World Famous Beagle Tent featuring 13 acts from the bent to family friendly; songstress Wendy Stapleton performing songs of the sixties; Moulin Rouge Cocktail Party; Shake Your Tail Feather Disco feature Immaculate Madonna; walks in the country with ecologist Tanya Loos; Frank and Connie's South American inspired lunch with ceviche and pisco sours; authors talks; art exhibitions and of course the much loved and very colourful ChillOut Parade in Vincent Street, Daylesford and the massive Carnival Day at Victoria Park on Sunday. This is a brilliant weekend celebrating the colourful, diverse and frankly, quite fabulous LGBTIQ community, friends and family. ChillOut will also see the official launch of Raising Rainbows, a new ChillOut initiative to reduce GLBTIQ-related bullying in regional schools and community groups. An art auction fundraiser complete with cocktails and nibbles will be held at Palais-Hepburn on Thursday 7 March.
ChillOut Festival March 7-11; chilloutfestival.com.au
2. Lost Trades Fair
02. Lost Trades Fair
The Lost & Rare Trades Fair was established as an artisan-led event to provide a single platform for career artisans and traditional tradespeople to share their skills. People are fascinated when true artisans and talented craftspeople openly demonstrate their incredible skills and share their knowledge of their trade and craft. In its fifth year, the Fair showcases over 100 makers, with some masters of their trade having practised their craft for more than 60 years - openly demonstrating and sharing their skills, talent and craftsmanship. The Lost Trades Fair is unique, captivating and possibly one of the most inspiring and authentic shows on earth. Held at the Kyneton Racecourse tickets are limited to 8000 each day. Expect to see coopers, carriage builders, silversmiths, stonemasons, glass blowers, gunsmiths, chairmakers, printmakers along with getting the chance to try out many of the trades.
March 9-10; 10am-4pm. Tickets via Trybooking $5-$20
3. Castlemaine State Festival
The Castlemaine State Festival is a ten day extravaganza of art, music, film, culture and fun. The program is packed full of captivating events in some of Australia's finest Gold Rush era venues.
Set amongst Castlemaine and surrounds, a town of 7,000 swells to over 15,000 during peak festival time. Audiences congregate from across Victoria for one of Australia's longest running Arts Festivals, now in its 42 year, which makes it Victoria’s key regional arts festival. Festival goers will no doubt enjoy the unique atmosphere of our Central Victorian community which comes together to celebrate this biennial ten-day multi-arts celebration. The festival covers music, dance, performance, talks and events. The is a strong free programme. This is a very popular event and some of the programming has already sold out.
March 22-31
4. Last Drinks
The Old Hepburn Hotel is closing up shop. The freehold has been sold and the new owners won’t be continuing the lease. A bastion of live Australian music for 16 years will fall silent and the district will lose one its most egalitarian and truly grass roots venues. The doors will close for the last time on Sunday March 17. So make the most of your time left with the old girld and get down there for pub grub and good tunes. While the team at the pub haven’t announced the line up for the final weekend of the 15-17 March just get down there for this is going to be a brilliant party weekend.
236 Main Rd, Hepburn Springs, 5348 2207, oldhepburnhotel.com.au
5. Festival of Small Halls
The Festival of Small Halls is a series of tours that takes the best folk and contemporary acoustic artists performing at two of our country’s largest festivals, Woodford and Port Fairy, and sends them on the road to tiny halls in communities all over Australia. It’s an opportunity for music-lovers from welcoming communities to invite artists from home and abroad into their towns, and a way of exploring this vast country in the spirit of hospitality and great fun. This April sees the Glenlyon Town Hall included in the programme. The 120-year-old Glenlyon Hall has long been a proud focal point for the local community. The Festival of Small Halls rolls into Glenlyon on Wednesday, 3 April 2019 with award-winning Canadian trio The Once and Australia’s John Flanagan
Buy tickets at smallhalls.iwannaticket.com.au or via the Glenlyon Progress Association
And just one more…
6. Daylesford Polo
There will be more than a few pretty fillies when Daylesford Polo makes its debut at the Mingela Polo Club in Drummond on Saturday 23 March. Mingela Polo Club is set on 1,000 acres of incredibly picturesque countryside and owners have kindly donated the grounds of their polo pitch to host this inaugural event to raise funds for TLC for Kids - an organisation that has worked with over 400 hospitals to provide support for children in need.
Saturday March 29 11am-5pm, 2029 Daylesford-Malmsbury Rd, Drummond. daylesfordpolo.com.au