HERALDING an exciting new era for the Mooloolah Public Hall, the heritage-listed community venue will be jumping on the 2023 Festival of Small Halls tour bandwagon. This will be the first time ever Mooloolah has been included in the popular touring music event that brings high calibre folk and contemporary acoustic artists to small halls across the country.
Mooloolah Hall will host the local leg of the ‘Outback Queensland Spring Tour 2023’ on Friday October 20, which will feature Atlantic Canadian folk troubadour Shane Pendergast, indie folk songwriter Monique Clare and local Sunshine Coast songstress, Anjali Leonard.
Booking officer Selina Stewart said the Mooloolah Hall committee members were thrilled to be exploring a new direction and hoped events like this would appeal to both families and individuals to get out and connect with the community in a fun and vibrant atmosphere.
“We’ve noticed a shift of energy in our community, and with some new younger blood on our hall committee, we’ve been looking for new ways of engaging people to connect in with our fantastic hall space. We hope a live music event like this will be a breathe of fresh air for our community landscape and entice locals to come along and enjoy a great evening of awesome music and community connection,” Ms Stewart said.
Executive committee member Emily Ledger said the idea to host this type of event had originally been suggested by the retiring management committee; however, given the production scale required it seemed like too much of a logistical challenge for the previous volunteer run committee. Emily said that being able to work with the Woodfordia events team had taken a lot of the pressure off the current committee in organising the event and she said she hoped community uptake would be positive. She said she was excited that the committee were able to bring international and touring acts to Mooloolah, and hoped the community would rally behind the event. She said, in some ways, she felt like the hall was returning to its roots by drawing the community together through music and hoped it would once again become a hub for local community entertainment.
“Obviously, this hall opened with dance, and like many community halls in our region it was renowned for its music and dances. While we haven’t seen that over the last few years, we hope to reignite that spark and believe music and dancing are truly great ways to activate the space,” Ms Ledger said.
Festival of Small Halls producer, Isobel Bartlett said she was thrilled to be heading to Mooloolah for the first time this year, and suggested the event would be a great opportunity to catch up with friends and family for what promises to be an unforgettable evening.
“There are so many incredible halls across the Sunshine Coast, with such delightful communities attached to them, and it’s amazing to be able to work with so many over the years. For those attending, you can expect a beautiful evening of music from three wonderful musicians, including Anjali Leonard, a local Sunshine Coast songwriter who will be opening the night,” Ms Bartlett said.
Following the Mooloolah event, the tour will head to Mapleton Hall on Saturday October 21.
Tickets are available online at www.festivalofsmallhalls.com or can be purchased in person at the Mooloolah Newsagency or Mitre 10 Hardware store.