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Beechworth’s famous Ned Kelly Weekend returns from 1- 3 August 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.

Now in its fifth year and 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.

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This year’s Ned Kelly Weekend has the added significance of the 150th anniversary of the Beechworth Historic & Cultural Precinct, being commemorated throughout 2008. This year for the first time, tours of the Courthouse will be available across the weekend in recognition of the sesquicentenary.

Among the many highlights of the 2008 program are:
• Introduced by 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. One of the most popular events of the 2007 Ned Kelly Weekend, Framed, returns to Beechworth’s Historic Precinct in 2008. This sensational art exhibition is again expected to attract entries from regional, metropolitan and interstate artists. This year the general public will have the chance to vote for their favourite work with the new Framed People’s Choice Award.

• 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.

• A crowd favourite in 2006, The Great Fight returns in 2008, commemorating Ned Kelly’s marathon bare-knuckled 20-Round stoush with Wild Wright. The warm-up bout for this rollicking event will be the judging of the Great Ned Kelly Weekend Beard Competition which will see a gathering of the finest beards in the north east vying for the inaugural Best Beard Trophy.