The 2025 Perth Festival will make use of one of the cities most distinctive unused buildings – the East Perth Power Station.
The power station stopped operating in 1981 and over the decades there’s been much debate about what should happen to the building with it’s distinctive architecture and riverside frontage.
When the facility was first shut down the surrounding area looked very different. Most of East Perth was a industrial area filled with warehouses and factories, across the other side of the river was a former rubbish dump.
As the decades have passed the warehouses have been converted into stylish homes, the factories have been knocked down to make room for apartment buildings, and opposite is the spectacular Matagarup Bridge, Optus Stadium and the Crown Entertainment Precinct.
In 2025 Anna Reece begins her four year term as the Artistic Director of the festival, and she hopes by staging events at the location, it’ll spark more conversations about what can be done to activate the monolithic building.
Reece says her first festival will be one that will be filled with “truth tellers and mischief makers, of sand dunes and salty air, of nostalgia and euphoria, of new places and new spaces, and plenty of surprise and delight.”
Highlighting the work of Aboriginal artists the festival will commission three artists from different generations to create new work that will be projected on to the facade of the power station.
“Taking over the East Perth Power Station is an absolute dream,” Reece told reporters at a media call this week. “Festivals at their best transform space and places and offer that sense of surprise and delight.”
The festival will utilise the location for parts of their program for the next four years. The space in front of the station will be used for Casa Musica, a world music program that will run from Wednesdays to Sundays throughout the festival.
While at the back of the power station some of the mainstage music performances will take place. Artists including Electric Fields, Röyksopp, Peter Garett and the Alter Egos and Nils Frahm are on the bill, and the full music program is set to be released next month.
John Carey, the Member for Perth and Planning and Housing Minister, shared his excitement about the site being activated by the festival, but noted that a long term plan for the building is yet to be established.
Carey announced that through Lotterywest the government would be supplying a grant to the festival of 9.5million, the biggest grant that Perth Festival have received over their long history.
“Do not under estimate how important this investment in Perth Festival is.” Carey told the assembled media. “It’s a signature arts event for Perth, supporting our arts sector, but also helping to activate our city and create another event for tourists visiting the city.”
“I think this event to be held here by the Perth Festival will show the real potential of the East Perth Power Station into the future.” Minister Carey said of the events planned for early 2025.
The inside of the building cannot be used by the festival because it still has issues around asbestos contamination and structural issues, but the minister reassured everyone the outside area has been closely monitored.
While Development WA previously considered a proposal to redevelop the site into a mix of hotel and hospitality spaces, at this time there is no firm proposal on what should become of the site.
The minister said that the government is now working on a new master plan for the site, but getting the location to a point where infrastructure has been removed and contamination has been managed to a point where it could be used by the festival was a major milestone in the redevelopment process.
Alison Xamon, the Mayor of the City of Vincent said she was thrilled to see the site being used for the Perth Festival.
“This is an iconic site, and it’s one that we’re hoping will be able to be showcased in a way that will attract some interest, hopefully from some philanthropists, who might want to think about transforming this wonderful space, this iconic building, into a future cultural hub.” Xamon said.
Xamon says there are many things that could occur with the site, but her preference is for it to be a cultural hub rather than a hotel or accommodation.
