City of Ballarat has confirmed the Season of the Arts and the Cabaret Festival will not be running in Ballarat this year.
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Members of the Ballarat arts community have questioned the loss of the two “well attended” events.
But City of Ballarat development and planning director Angelique Lush said council’s commitment to arts and culture remained strong.
“The restoration works currently underway at Her Majesty's Theatre have meant the Her Majesty's Theatre board and the City of Ballarat have had to review performing arts programming and, unfortunately, it meant the Cabaret Festival could not be scheduled this year,” she said.
The Ballarat Cabaret Festival was held in October last year and was described as a “unique regional festival” that brought the best of cabaret entertainment to Ballarat. It had run for six years.
Ballarat Season of the Arts was a marketing tool used to pull together different arts events from August to October under the one banner. When Ballarat Regional Tourism chair in 2015, Serena Eldridge told The Courier visitation had increased by an average of 25,000 during the Season of the Arts fron 2013 to 2015.
The City of Ballarat has decided to strongly support these two very significant events instead of running a competing Season of the Arts marketing campaign.
- Angelique Lush, City of Ballarat development and planning director
Ms Lush said City of Ballarat had instead decided to focus on supporting other significant arts events this year.
“Both the Biennale of Australian Art (BOAA) and next year's Ballarat International Foto Biennale need their own strong branding and marketing and the City of Ballarat has decided to strongly support these two very significant events instead of running a competing Season of the Arts marketing campaign,” she said.
The City of Ballarat allocated more than $15 million to arts and culture over four years.
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