Festival Hall, Melbourne

Festival Hall
The House of Stoush
Former names	West Melbourne Stadium Melbourne Stadium The Stadium
Location	300 Dudley St, West Melbourne, Victoria, 3003
Coordinates	37°48′40″S 144°56′47″E / 37.81111°S 144.94639°E / -37.81111; 144.94639Coordinates: 37°48′40″S 144°56′47″E / 37.81111°S 144.94639°E / -37.81111; 144.94639
Opened	May 1915
Owner	Stadiums Pty Ltd
Operator	Arena Management Pty Ltd
Construction cost	250,000 pounds
Capacity	Seating: 1,741 Standing: 2,600 Concerts: 5,445

Festival Hall is a concert and sporting venue, located at 300 Dudley Street, West Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is one of Melbourne's larger concert venues and has hosted a variety of local and international acts over many years.

Formerly known as the West Melbourne Stadium (shortened to The Stadium), it was originally built in 1915 by John Wren[1] (Chairman) and Dick Lean (General Manager) of Stadiums Ltd as a multi-function venue for boxing and pro wrestling. It quickly became known to locals as "the House of Stoush", as over the years some of the greatest names in Australian boxing have duked it out, including Lionel Rose, Johnny Famechon, Anthony Mundine, Lester Ellis and Barry Michael. pro Wrestling also featured regularly, as did Roller Derby, ballroom dancing, cultural and religious gatherings, and the first Indoor Tennis Exhibition featuring John McEnroe. It was used by the Painters and Dockers criminal organisation as a meeting place, and during the Great Depression, unemployed men seeking work would gather at Festival Hall to be picked for dock work.

'The Stadium' was destroyed by fire in 1955 but was rebuilt in time for the 1956 Olympics, where it was used for boxing, basketball, and gymnastics events.[2][3]

Dick Lean Jnr, (son of the original General Manager,Dick Lean) joined Stadiums in 1960 and set about successful promotion of major music acts of all genres from both the U.K. and U.S.A, increasing the use of the venue significantly. 'The Stadium' was renamed 'Festival Hall' in the early 1960s to reflect its increasing use as Melbourne's largest live entertainment venue at the time.

Since its renovation Festival Hall’s versatile set-up has been used for many events including its weekly conversion into Australia's largest television studio for the production of The Price is Right for Seven Network.

Festival Hall can be used for fully seated events of up to 4,586 including the main floor or for up to 5,445 if the floor is used for standing, sight lines permitting. The addition of floor-to-ceiling curtains around the main floor and between the side sections allows seating for up to 1,741 people or 2,600 standing on the main floor in intimate surrounds with the use of the balcony area opposite the stage above the main floor entrance providing an additional 272 seats. The main floor has an area of 1,288 m², providing ample room for comfortable dining for up to 1,000 seated guests plus dance floor, and the stage offers a further 160 m² of elevated space. Festival Hall has been used for black tie dinners, product launches, conferences, motivation sessions, art exhibitions, large Christmas parties, religious and cultural events, and even as an examination venue for Swinburne University. Festival Hall has a strong presence on the web with a fan group at Facebook and even a Twitter account.

As a concert venue

Festival Hall was known as the original House of Rock and Roll and is famous for its electric atmosphere. It took off as a live music venue when Australia's famous entrepreneur, Dick Lean Jr. (Promoter & CEO of Stadiums Ltd), booked the Beatles to play Australia in 1964. Dick Lean continued to promote and bring to Australia all of the major 'Headline Acts' during 60's, 70's and 80's - which performed in the Stadiums venues in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.[4] These days, the iconic venue is affectionately known as "Festering Hall" and has had somewhat of a resurgence as the 'real home of rock and roll' in Australia.

On 20 May 1964 Judy Garland performed at Festival Hall during her Australian Tour and was unable to finish the performance.

The Living End's Live at Festival Hall was filmed there on 19 May 2006.

On 30 January 2008, Rage Against the Machine performed at the venue, in what was only their second headline show outside the United States since their breakup in September 2000. Tickets to this show and their show in Sydney sold out in less than three minutes, making this a record for the band.

Over the years the following bands have also performed at this venue (* denotes upcoming performance):

• +44
• 18 Visions
• 28 Days
• 30 Seconds to Mars
• 50 Lions *
• Above and Beyond
• A Perfect Circle
• AC/DC
• AFI
• Alice Cooper
• Alice in Chains
• Angels & Airwaves
• Arctic Monkeys
• Atreyu, Avenged Sevenfold and support Behind Crimson Eyes
• A Tribe Called Quest
• Baby Animals
• Bad Religion
• The Beastie Boys
• The Beatles
• Ben Harper
• Billy Joel
• Blink-182
• Bliss n eso
• Birds of Tokyo
• Bloc Party
• Bob Dylan
• Bob Marley & The Wailers
• Bodyjar
• Bowling For Soup
• Bring Me The Horizon
• Bruno Mars
• Buddy Holly & The Crickets
• Bullet for My Valentine
• Cancer Bats
• CNBLUE - Blue Moon World Tour
• Cosmic Gate
• Creedence Clearwater Revival
• Crowded House
• Deep Purple
• Deftones
• Devo - supported by Regurgitator and Eddie Current Supression Ring
• Disturbed - supported by Alter Bridge
• Dragon
• Dream Theater
• Ed Sheeran
• Elton John
• Evanescence supported by Full Scale
• Faith No More
• Fall Out Boy - supported by Gyroscope and Jack's Mannequin
• Fleetwood Mac
• Florence + The Machine
• Flyleaf
• Foo Fighters
• Garbage
• Green Day
• Grinspoon
• Hilltop Hoods
• HIM
• Houston Calls
• Hush
• Ian Dury & The Blockheads - supported by No Fixed Address and Spartacus
• Incubus
• Interpol
• Inxs
• Iron Maiden
• Jack White
• Jackson 5
• Jason Derulo
• Jenny Morris
• Jet
• Jerry Lee Lewis
• Jethro Tull
• Joe Jackson
• Joe Satriani
• Justice
• Justin Timberlake
• Kaiser Chiefs
• Ke$ha
• Kings of Leon
• Kisschasy
• La Roux Supported by Tim & Jean and Bertie Blackman
• Lamb Of God
• Leo Sayer
• Lily Allen
• Linkin Park
• Little River Band
• Living Colour
• Machine Head - supported by Trivium and Arch Enemy
• Magazine
• Marilyn Manson
• Marko Perkovic Thompson
• The Mars Volta
• Metallica
• Megadeth
• MGMT
• Midnight Oil
• Millencolin
• Mortal Sin
• Motorhead
• Muse - 2004, 2007
• My Chemical Romance- supported by Another Day Down
• Neil Hamburger
• Neil Young
• New Found Glory
• New Order
• Nine Inch Nails
• Noiseworks
• Norman Gunston
• Oasis
• Olivia Newton-John
• Osibisa
• Ozzy Osbourne
• Panic! at the Disco - supported by Kisschasy and Something With Numbers
• Pantera
• Paramore
• Parkway Drive
• Pendulum
• Pink Floyd
• Pixies
• Placebo
• Poison
• Portishead
• Powderfinger
• Procol Harum
• Public Enemy
• Pulp
• Queen
• Radiohead
• Rage Against The Machine - 2nd non-festival outside USA since 2000
• Rainbow
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Redhouse[disambiguation needed]
• Rise Against
• Roy Orbison
• Santana
• Sepultura
• Sherbet
• Shihad
• Short Stack - supported by For Our Hero and Die For You
• Sigur Rós
• Silverchair
• Simple Plan
• Skyhooks
• Slash
• Slayer
• Sneaky Sound System
• Snow Patrol
• Sum 41
• Split Enz
• Stars
• Steel Panther
• Stevie Nicks
• Stevie Ray Vaughan
• Sting
• Story Of The Year
• Suzi Quatro
• Sweet
• System Of A Down
• Ted Mulry Gang
• Tenacious D
• The Bee Gees
• The Black Crowes
• The Carpenters
• The Devil Wears Prada
• The Eagles
• The Flaming Lips
• The Game
• The Ghost Inside
• The Hard-Ons
• The Killers
• The Kinks
• The Living End - DVD of performance available
• The Mars Volta
• The New Christs
• The Offspring
• The Police
• The Presets
• The Ramones
• The Script
• The Sex Pistols
• The Smashing Pumpkins
• The Strokes
• The Tea Party - supported by Deadstar
• The Used - supported by The Getaway Plan & Take 21
• The Vandals
• The Veronicas
• The White Stripes
• The Who
• Them Crooked Vultures
• Thompson
• Thrice
• Tiesto
• Tina Turner
• Tool
• Transvision Vamp
• Trivium
• Twisted Sister
• Ugly Kid Joe supported by Chocolate Starfish
• Unwritten Law
• Vampire Weekend supported by Cloud Control
• Whitesnake
• Wings
• Wolfmother
• XTC
• Yellowcard
• ZZ Top
• The Yardbirds
• Status Quo
• The Small Faces
• Uriah Heep
• Manfred Mann's Earthband
• Rod Stewart & The Faces
• Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky , Mick & Tich
• The Hollies
• The Dave Clark Five
• Eric Burdon & The Animals
• Mungo Jerry
• The Seekers
• Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass

See also

• List of concert halls

References

1. ^ "memorable stadiums - Melbourne Stadium later renamed Festival Hall". Australian Boxing News. Retrieved 2 December 2009. 
2. ^ "Festival Hall Live Music Venues Dining and Drink". Only Melbourne. Retrieved 2 December 2009. 
3. ^ 1956 Summer Olympics official report. p. 42.
4. ^ http://www.classicbands.com/JohnnyChesterInterview.html

External links

• Official website
• Festival Hall - Only Melbourne