Opening Festival to celebrate completion of Gippsland Performing Arts Centre

With construction of the Gippsland Performing Arts Centre (GPAC) nearing completion, a four day festival – OPEN - will be held to celebrate the completion of Gippsland’s new home of the arts featuring the best in music, comedy, live performance and plenty of fun for everyone.

The festival will spotlight all of the venue’s offerings, including The Big Family Weekender, a large free outdoor public program running from Saturday 5th – Sunday 6th March 2022 designed for families and children.

The opening event TOGETHER on Thursday 3rd March will highlight Latrobe City-grown performers in a community celebration winding through the new precinct.

This will be followed by a world-class program across the weekend with performances from Client Liaison and the OPEN Comedy Gala headlined by Dave Thornton and Peter Helliar.

Mayor of Latrobe City, Kellie O’Callaghan advises “the opening festival is a chance for our whole community to explore and feel welcome in the Gippsland Performing Arts Centre, as we lift the curtain on this amazing new facility and celebrate what it has to offer.

“The Gippsland Performing Arts Centre will also make a significant contribution towards the ongoing recovery of our creative industries and visitor economy from the challenges of COVID-19.

“Councillors were lucky to have a site tour in late 2021, and were blown away by the scale and quality of the building and the range of spaces available that our community will enjoy for decades to come.”

The $42.1 million project has been made possible by collaborative investment from the Victorian Government ($12 million), the Australian Government’s Community Development Grants Programme ($10 million), and Latrobe City Council.

Tickets for the OPEN four-day festival are on sale now from the new Gippsland Performing Arts Centre website