Live music set to return

REGIONAL artists, musicians and venues have been given a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel with the State Government’s announcement of the outdoor festival Play On Victoria.

Over 20 artists feature in the line-up, which takes place on outdoor stages in Ballarat, Castlemaine, Bendigo, Warrnambool and more on Saturday, 30 and Sunday, 31 October.

In Ballarat, local artist Skyscraper Stan will be joined by Gareth Liddiard, Allara, Jess Ribeiro and Our Carlson at Volta on the Saturday for a street party.

Venue booker for Volta Lachy Anderson said he’s excited to close off Field Street and create a temporary event space to celebrate live music’s return to the region.

“It’s been a pretty difficult 18 months for music venues, and hospitality venues in general and we’ve been open at a very reduced capacity,” he said.

“When this opportunity arose to put on a show, we were so excited to be a part of the whole program.

“We love to have live music on four nights, five nights a week. We’re excited, but hopefully this is just the starting point of us being able to open up sooner rather than later.”

Jess Ribeiro said the event is hopefully the start of artists being able to do what they love, perform.

“We’ve lost lots of income as artists over the past two years,” she said. “It’s part of how we live and survive so it’s really important.”

“It’s been a very lonely time. I’m really excited to be able to perform outdoors and reconnect with the public because it’s been a really, really long time and it’s part of our livelihoods.

“Our mental health has been affected as well as our finances, it’s just as important as the Melbourne Cup.”

The event forms part of the State Government’s vaccinated economy rollout, with only people fully vaccinated able to attend.