Hats off to the arts’ movers and shakers

You need planners and note-takers, movers and doers and list-makers, shakers and tea-makers.

And that’s just to make a universe with planets and moons and suns that work according to Newton’s three laws of motion.

Quite what it takes to organise 10 days of arts events in a country city, or a band or an exhibition or a play, I have no idea.

The first thing I would do is get a reliable kettle.

So I take my hat off to all those busy people who brought us the 30th annual Shepparton Festival, which finished on Sunday.

Have a rest.

While this year’s program was delivered by producer Gareth Hart and administration co-ordinator Billy-Jo Royle, the bones of this anniversary festival were laid down by Diana Fisk, who travelled from Geelong two days a week during the early part of 2025 to her home town of Shepparton to begin the task of putting together this year’s event.

As the mother of two young boys, Diana found the travel onerous and she was eventually forced to relinquish her role as artistic director.

Nevertheless, she deserves recognition for her substantial contribution.

The process does the raise the question of sustainability; is two days a week really enough to deliver an annual 10-day festival program with verve and variety?

This year’s program contained enough variety and punch to celebrate 30 years of festivals with poetry workshops and readings, a film festival, exhibitions of painting and pottery, performances and music and a clever presentation of memories from the past 30 years.

The Converge on the Goulburn get-together at Victoria Park Lake is now the signature event of the festival, which is as it should be.

It celebrates the best of our city — our cultural diversity, our variety of food and a chance to say hello to all those familiar friends and new faces you pass in the street without stopping to chat.

Even for a relentless table-dancing party-person like me, it’s impossible to attend everything, so the following highlights were the ones that meant the most to me.

A musical evening from local trio Angelus at the festival hub created a deliciously intimate performance peppered with delightful choices from jazz standards, pop and folk to the original songs of Julie Price, all peppered with the warmth of Emma King’s cello and the assured and joyous vocals of Lou Costa.

Shepparton Theatre Arts Group’s performance of the Louis Nowra Australian classic play Cosi was an absolute triumph of the wild energy, genuine emotion and real presence that only live theatre can bring.

Ever since STAG has been able to use its own Blackbox mini-theatre, the skill levels of its performers, backstage crew and technicians have just skyrocketed.

Finally, Tank’s art gallery.

What a dynamo of community support and creativity is Tank.

Fresh from delivering water tanks to the fire-stricken people of Longwood, Shepparton’s uniquely surreal painter of cows, ducks and birds opened his gallery for an autumn show of local art during this year’s festival.

All the darlings of Shepparton’s art scene were there for opening night, and some even opened their wallets for an original piece of Shepp-art-on the wall.

Well, that’s a local art wrap for ’26.

Now it’s back to reality and the surreal price of oil.

John Lewis is a former journalist at The News.