Newtown Festival is discontinuing after 40 years
Image: The cancellation of the Newtown Festival is a sad thing to hear. Image: Newtown Neighbourhood Centre/Facebook
By TILEAH DOBSON
The beloved and long-running Newtown Festival will no longer be happening after celebrating the community for 40 years.
Newtown Neighborhood Centre (NCC) is the body that organises the yearly festival and recently announced that it was discontinuing the event, which has been running annually since 1983.
“Over the last 40 years, Newtown Festival has experienced significant growth, with many more businesses, sponsors and people attending the event,” the organisers said in a statement.
“While this has been exciting to witness, this large-scale financial endeavour has eclipsed the resources, capabilities and purpose of NNC.”
“After years of careful consideration, which involved reviewing a number of possible funding scenarios and business cases, as well as community consultation, NNC’s board has made the decision to discontinue the festival.”
The organisers stressed that they “did not come to this conclusion lightly” when deciding whether to continue the event or not. They also know “how much the festival will be missed by residents, and NNC itself.”
Continuing To Support The Community
While the Newtown Festival will no longer be happening, the NCC CEO Elaine Macnish told City Hub that the centre will continue to support the community with an “ongoing partnership with the Inner West Council.”
“It was an incredibly hard decision to make and it wasn’t a quick decision either,” she said.
“But we’ll continue to support the community and continue to do smaller events.”
“SummerFest, Marrickville Music Festival and the St.Anmoré (Stanmore) Music Festival share many of the values of Newtown Festival. Our participation in these events will foster new connections for NNC and allow us to focus on our key purpose of supporting the community,” the NCC statement read.
NCC expressed their gratitude to everyone who has participated in the Newtown Festival in any shape or form as they “look forward to creating new traditions and memories as we continue to work alongside and support the residents of Newtown.”
“I have so many good memories.”
Greens MP for Newtown, Jenny Leong shared her fond memories of the festival on her social media.
“For the last 40 years, the Newtown Festival has been a joyous community celebration and important platform for local performers and artists,” she wrote on Facebook.
Leong spoke with City Hub, reminiscing on her first time at the festival and “being part of the grassroots sticker campaign run against the fences and the sniffer dogs.”
“The festival evolved and changed over the years – and one of my fondest memories was speaking at the festival after first being elected to thank the community, as well as also leading a collective ‘Shake It Off’ at the election of Donald Trump.”
“A vibrant live music scene, alongside a range of inclusive, free community events, are at the heart of our local, inner west community and we’re looking forward to the next chapter.”
Leong also expressed her gratitude towards “the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre a massive thank you for the enormous amount of work they put into hosting the festival.”
“We will continue to work closely with them, as the Member for Newtown, to support their vital services,” she said.
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