Beechworth Ned Kelly Weekend

Beechworth Ned Kelly WeekendBeechworth’s famous Ned Kelly Weekend is held in August each year with a lively program of re-enactments, theatre, art, music, displays, market stalls, competitions and talks by leading authorities on the subject of the life and times of Australia’s most notorious bushranger.

Widely regarded as this country’s most important annual celebration of the Kelly legend, the weekend event commemorates the anniversary of the outlaw’s committal hearing held in the historic Beechworth Courthouse from 6 to 11 August 1880.

 

Beechworth Ned Kelly Weekend Beechworth Ned Kelly Weekend Beechworth Ned Kelly Weekend

The many highlights of the annual program vary but have included:
• Australia’s foremost Kelly biographer, Ian Jones, a critically acclaimed theatrical staging of The Jerilderie Letter in the historic Courthouse. Devised and performed by Peter Finlay and with music and vocals by Malcolm Hill, this fine production has received rave reviews since its debut performance at the 2007 Melbourne Fringe Festival

• From Sidney Nolan to Norman Lindsay, Ned Kelly has long provided inspiration for artists. Art exhibitions themed around the Kelly legend attracts entries from regional, metropolitan and interstate artists.


• Talks by experts in the Courthouse, including Brad Webb, whose authoritative www.ironoutlaw.com is Australia’s most respected Kelly internet resource and one of the world’s most visited history-related internet sites

• The Ned Kelly Weekend Heritage Market in Ford Street, outside the Historic Precinct, featuring a host of good old-fashioned food stalls, buskers, games for children and demonstrations of traditional crafts such as shingle and whip making, wood working, blacksmithing, spinning, coopering, quilting and weaving

• The Ned Kelly Trial Re-enactment, including Ned’s arrival at the Beechworth Historic Courthouse and his subsequent committal hearing based on actual court transcripts. 

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