Rochester’s flood impacted community to be offered 'time-out' with ROCHELLA festival

The community of Rochester, nestled on the banks of the meandering Campaspe River and the gateway to the Murray River region Northern Victoria, still has hundreds of residents living in caravans while they're stuck in limbo waiting for their flood-damaged houses to be rebuilt.

In the name of recovery and resilience, the ROCHELLA festival - a community affair, taking place on Saturday 14th October 2023 at the Rochester Recreation Reserve, has been organised by Rochester Community House for the local community with support from sporting clubs and committees of the region.

The event is an opportunity for locals to come together and take some time out following the floods of 2022. Alongside live music, ROCHELLA will feature fun family activities and local food stalls.

Music Victoria Chief Executive Simone Schinkel shared “Recovery can take a long time. To sustain, communities like Rochester need days like this to acknowledge how far they’ve come and to let live music, good food and community lift spirts up.”

Backed by the Victorian Government’s Live Music Flood Recovery program, the festival will be headlined by award-winning Victorian bands Cash Savage and the Last Drinks and The Black Sorrows and features musicians from the local community and around the state.

The line-up includes Bones and Jones from Geelong, dance-pop collective Empress, Echuca band Stumbling North, family-friendly act The Burnt Sausages, and Australian Idol artist Anya Alchemy.

Local students will take a star turn with the premiere of a song they wrote in collaboration with Golden Guitar winner Josh Arnold for his Small Town Culture music project.

Delivered by Music Victoria on behalf of the State Government, the Live Music Flood Recovery program supports flood-affected towns and villages in regional and rural Victoria to host live music events. More than 40 events are being staged throughout 2023.

Victorian Minister for Creative Industries Steve Dimopoulos noted “As part of our support for flood impacted communities, we are proud to back ROCHELLA – a celebration of this strong, vibrant community featuring some of Victoria’s outstanding music talent.”

A parliamentary inquiry into last year's devastating Victorian floods will conduct public hearings in Rochester and Echuca this week as hundreds of homes and businesses in the town, 200 kilometres north of Melbourne, were ruined and many of the town's more than 3,000 residents were displaced.

Some people are still unable to return to their homes 10 months after the waters swept through Rochester.

The inquiry is looking into Victoria's preparedness for, and response to, last October's devastating floods.

Tickets for ROCHELLA go on sale from Friday 25th August 2023, and are $10 for residents of postcode 3561, $30 for visitors and free for kids under 12. They can be purchased from the Rochester Newsagency or via rochellarochester.com 

Proceeds from ticket sales go to the Rochester Community Access Flood Relief Fund. For further information about ROCHELLA and the Live Music for Flood Recovery Program visit musicvictoria.com.au.