Local live music to kick off festival weekend

FRINGE Benefits, a twelve-hour live music event within Ballarat’s CBD, is set to precede the sold-out Spilt Milk festival later this year.

From 12pm to 12am on Friday, 29 November, the city’s businesses, from cafes to clubs, will come alive with the sounds of local performing artists of all types, entertaining the Spilt Milk crowds, and Ballarat residents.

For City of Ballarat’s Creative City Coordinator, Tara Poole, Fringe Benefits will get hidden and well-known creative performers and musicians shining amongst the historical buildings and streets of their home.

“We’re celebrating our heritage heart, and the businesses who make the most of our city everyday by merging them with a myriad of musical and artistic performers,” she said.

“There’s going to be 24,000 young people between 18 to 24 tooling around our city streets for 48 to 72 hours. The intention is to hook into what’s going on and to reinterpret it.”

The Spilt Milk team, having run the festival in Canberra previously, were keen to hear the idea and try something they’d never done before.

“We proposed the concept. They’ve given it standard endorsement, which means now we are segued right up close to what Spilt Milk is doing,” Ms Poole said.

“They will be having official pre-parties in the centre of town which gives a hinge point for us to work around. We’re working in alignment with Spilt Milk with the marketing and conditioning of it, the look and feel, and saying to local venues, let’s try and harness our audience.”

The council is seeking musicians and performance artists to play, and looking for shops or venues of any kind in the heart of town to volunteer to host these performers.

Musicians and places can express their interest together, or apply individually, and will be assessed and matched with the venue or performer that’s right for them. The council strongly encourages these venues to pay their featured artists.

“We’re pulling together a definitive calendar of events and activities, and you’ve got until the 30th of August to register your Fringe Benefits event,” Ms Poole said.

City of Ballarat CEO Justine Linley said the live music day, in line with the Creative Cities Strategy, is all about bringing vibrancy to our streets.

“We already have a fantastic streetscape and a fantastic business community here in Ballarat, and the artistic element is something that’s in our DNA. The Creative City Strategy is about bringing that out,” she said.

The council is driving for accommodation to be full around town for the whole Spilt Milk weekend. Friday’s event is part of that plan.

“The focus is on filling all accommodation venues throughout the city first,” Ms Linley said. “Fringe Benefits is about trying to get people in on the Friday, rather than people coming up and back for a day. The real focus is to make sure that they make a weekend of it.”

For further information, to register to play, or to host performers at your venue, visit the council’s Creative City site, launched on Tuesday at creativeballarat.com.au/fringe-benefits.