By a long-time St Kilda resident
In the 1980’s, St Kilda was perceived as a seedy suburb of Melbourne that attracted society’s undesirables and activities. St Kilda was described as “a dynamic place where good and evil worked alongside” according to the late Albert Tucker.
In the 60’s and 70’s Melbourne media ran headlines describing the St Kilda area as streets of hell, the devil’s triangle and documentaries were made showing people buying drugs in Fitzroy Street. Mary Lou Jelbart, a former resident and Councillor of the City of St Kilda felt that a festival celebrating all the actors, writers and creative people living in the area would change these negative perceptions and reassure people that “they were living in a good community, with very good neighbours around”.
The St Kilda festival was introduced in 1980 to change the public perception of the area and to showcase that there are some beautiful and very positive aspects to community life in St Kilda. In the 80’s the intention was only to celebrate the local area but today, music is the central programmatic driver of the festival.
In an interview for U3A Port Phillip, Jelbart offered the following summary of the first festival:
“We had the first St Kilda Festival in February or March 1980. It was absolutely wonderful. The council blocked off the Upper Esplanade. We celebrated St Kilda’s history. We had a revival of Frank Thring films – not Frank Thring the Hollywood actor but his father who was a St Kilda based film producer in the 1930s. We showed the films at the Palais. We had ice-skating at St Moritz which was still in existence. George Dreyfus conducted a mass, a non-religious mass. Mirka Mora, who was living in St Kilda at that time, drew a mural on masonite and children came and coloured it in. In fact, she did three murals, for three successive festivals. One has disappeared, but one is in the St Kilda Library. At Christ Church in Acland Street the vicar and his wife provided Devonshire teas under the trees. It was really enchanting. The weather was perfect. Everything was just beautiful. The two days ended with 15 minutes of fireworks over the bay. The Esplanade was crowded with very happy people. It was wonderful to see the community celebrate together.”
Things have certainly changed…
The festival has seen many formats since its inception over 40 years ago. With an attendance of a mere 5,000 in 1980, today around 400,000 people flock to the foreshore to witness Australian musicians entertaining the crowds. The St Kilda Festival is known as Australia’s largest free community festival – a celebration of community spirit, Australian talent, and the beautiful St Kilda foreshore.
According to the 2021/22 Council Plan and Budget, the Council paid $1.7M as a contribution towards the costs of the festival (compared to a $159K contribution towards the St Kilda Film Festival). These costs are included in the Council’s $4.3M annual budget for all festivals, major events, Esplanade market and Indigenous arts programs, including the Yaluk-ut Weelam Ngargee event.
Many people have commented on the perceived unfairness of St Kilda as the focus of these events (and therefore festival funding being focused on St Kilda). They believe that other areas including Elwood, Port Melbourne, Albert Park, South Melbourne and Middle Park should all receive funding for similar local events.
Other residents have complained of poor behaviour from Festival patrons, some of whom believe that, because it’s St Kilda, they can behave in any manner they please showing no respect for the local community. In 2012, a Festival patron was jailed for 34 months (15 months without parole) after he detonated 2 homemade devices in separate incidents at the Festival. Five people were injured, 2 seriously, despite the defendant’s claims he ‘just wanted to have some fun’.
During the 2013 Festival, a man was charged over the bashing of a 23-year-old New Zealand man as he walked along Jacka Boulevard.
Others, including Councillor Andrew Bond, staunchly support the Festival and claim that delivery of the St Kilda Festival has the potential to bring economic, social and cultural benefit to the community.
Over the years, the suburb of St Kilda has transformed itself into a highly desirable place to visit, live and work and embodies our deep connection to beach culture.
So, do you believe there is still a need for the St Kilda Festival? How do you, as a ratepayer, feel about the financial support given to the festival on your behalf? We would be interested to hear your comments, opinions and ideas.
In the meantime, we will leave you with some recent comments from Mary Lou Jelbart at whose instigation and initiative, the Festival was founded.
“The St. Kilda Festival was originally conceived as a boutique event, promoting the talents of local artists, musicians, writers and performers who had been attracted to the bohemian and cosmopolitan character of the area. But the magical quality of the first Festivals has been eroded by its transformation into a major rock event, swamping the foreshore with tens of thousands of fans who do nothing to add to the amenity of local residents. Many have told me they feel prisoners in their homes during the Festival. I continue to regret that I wasn’t able to persuade fellow Councillors to let the Festival come to a natural end after a decade. In the case of more recent Festivals, bigger has not been better.”
