“Unique events in unusual places”. First staged in 1997, the Shepparton Festival has grown to deliver an exciting array of arts and cultural activites each March that celebrate the peoples and places of Greater Shepparton.
The Shepparton Festival has played a major role in changing the face of the arts culture in the region by giving the arts a greater profile and acceptance. In fact, the Shepparton Festival has had an impact on the way Shepparton views “itself” and is viewed by others.
Shepparton now hosts a strong annual program of touring professional performing arts events, reflecting the uniqueness of the Shepparton Festival and of our region in a way that attracts local patronage as well as visitors from afar.
The diverse program achieves a balance between the innovative and the mainstream in a way that was calculated to appeal to a wide audience.
There is an emphasis on mixing community created arts with professionally produced and performed work. In particular, the Shepparton Festival has been successful in bringing professional artists to work with community groups in the development of new work.
