Inner West Creative Town Halls sees massive growth in usage

Thursday 14 November 2024

Media release
Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne

The conversion of Inner West Council's seven town halls to free arts venues is going gangbusters with over 1,100 bookings in the first three months of the program.

Launched this year, the Creative Town Halls program saw all seven Inner West town halls converted into arts venues, available for free for exhibition, rehearsal and live performance.

Since the pilot program was first initiated in May 2023 there has been a 260 per cent increase in the use of townhalls for arts and cultural events.

Usage of these spaces has continually increased across all genres and categories, with huge demand for affordable rehearsal space driving the growth.

“Our town halls are bursting with new artistic activity every week and being used more by the community than they have been in decades,” said Mayor Darcy Byrne.

“We are attracting more performances to these historic venues than ever before and our free town halls are making the Inner West even more of a hub for arts and music lovers across Sydney,” Mayor Darcy Byrne said.

The next step in the Creative Town Halls program will see the opening of the basement of Marrickville Town Hall as a live music venue in 2025.

"Marrickville Town Hall is the jewel in the crown of our town halls and making it a hub for live music and multicultural performance will make it shine even brighter, said Deputy Mayor Mat Howard.

"With the NSW Government's vibrancy reforms coming online and Marrickville Road being designated a Purple Flags district and Special Entertainment Precinct, now is the time to get this work done.”

Marrickville, Petersham and St Peters’ town halls are also being upgraded to improve the acoustics for performers and audiences.

Explore more details about Inner West’s Creative Town Halls program here:

Inner West Creative Town Halls

ENDS

For media enquiries please contact Margaret Merten, margaret.merten@innerwest.nsw.gov.au