St Kilda Festival is one of Australia’s biggest free music events and we want to make sure it continues to reflect what matters most to our community.
Between Thursday 22 January and Sunday 22 February 2026, we asked you to tell us what you enjoy, what could be improved and what priorities should guide the festival from 2027 onwards. This feedback was designed to help Council balance the festival’s benefits and manage local impacts.
We have brought together your feedback and created a report highlighting the key themes and advice we heard. That report is available below.
Next steps
We’re currently working to collate the findings from our other engagement activities for the festival. This includes:
- Feedback on the 2026 Festival Programme through Culture Counts.
- Workshops with key stakeholders including:
- industry stakeholders
- representatives from the live music sector
- Traditional Owners
- Trader Associations
Once this is done, we’ll present all these findings to Council. This is scheduled to be presented at the Council Meeting on Wednesday 3 June 2026.
On this page you could:
- Festival size and format such as operating hours and scale.
- Programming for the Festival. This includes:
- balance of music and other kinds of art
- types of music and performances
- showcasing local talent
- Ways to make the festival more accessible, inclusive and welcoming for everyone.
- Ways to improve the experience of residents during the festival.
- Whether the festival proceeds.
- The festival's location within St Kilda.
- The time of year the festival is held.
- First Peoples programming including the First Peoples First event. This will remain a core Council commitment.
- Public safety and compliance requirements.
Survey and Upload tool
This consultation is closed. This survey below closed at 11.59pm on Sunday 22 February 2026.
We are working to bring together your feedback and write a report which highlights the key themes and advice we have heard. This will be shared with the community soon.
