The organiser of the Ballarat Antiques Fair has called on the Ballarat City Council to deliver a large convention centre after his event was almost forced to move to Bendigo.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In recent years the Antiques Fair has been held at the Ballarat Exhibition Centre in Wendouree, however the facility closed after the 2017 fair due to a lack of business.
The 48th annual incarnation had been scheduled for the Ballarat Trotting Club, however a series of complications led event organisers to reschedule the fair at Bendigo’s Prince of Wales Showgrounds until an 11th hour intervention from Ballarat City mayor Samantha McIntosh.
Antiques Fair organiser John Markworth said while the event would take place in Ballarat at the Mining Exchange and Trades Hall, the 2018 offering would be about half the size of previous fairs due to capacity constraints.
Related coverage
Previous incarnations of the fair have been the largest of their kind in the country, drawing up to 5000 people to Ballarat over the Labour Day long weekend.
“If we are to stay in Ballarat we have to be smaller and we have to split across at least two venues and we’ll no longer be the biggest in the country,” Mr Markworth said. “It would appear for whatever reason that while many recognise the need for a larger venue it won’t be happening any time soon, and Ballarat is all the poorer for it.”
The Exhibition Centre closure comes ahead of the reopening of the maligned Civic Hall, which is set to be available for public use by the end of the year. The Antiques Fair is likely to move into the 1300-seat space in 2019.
While a convention centre is due to be constructed at the goods shed as part of the $51 million Ballarat Station Precinct development, it has been significantly downsized from early projections.
Cr McIntosh said she looked forward to having the Civic Hall site available for events later in the year and said while council continued to discuss the possibility of another larger facility, it was not a current priority.
“We have a series of major projects on our agenda at the moment and we need to remain focused.”