Golden Plains wins Best Festival as first round of Music Victoria Awards announced
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09.10.2020

Golden Plains wins Best Festival as first round of Music Victoria Awards announced

Photo by David Harris
Words by Tom Parker

The first instalment of the two-part Music Victoria Awards took place last night.

The Music Victoria Awards have been split into two parts this year with an Industry Awards night preceding the flagship Music Victoria Awards set to take place on Wednesday December 9.

The Industry Awards took place last night with seven industry-voted awards handed out and two new Music Victoria Hall of Fame inductees honoured. Of the accolades, The Gasometer Hotel won best Best Small Venue with The Forum taking home the gong for Best Large Venue.

Other awards saw Geelong’s Barwon Club Hotel honoured for Best Regional/Outer Suburban Venue (over 50 gigs per year) and the Theatre Royal in Castlemaine recognised for the same award but for venues hosting less than 50 gigs in a year.

Golden Plains won Best Festival for the third year straight, amongst strong competition from Brunswick Music Festival, Isol-Aid, Melbourne Music Week and Queenscliff Music Festival.

There were also two new awards handed out – the Outstanding Woman in Music Award and Best Producer Award. For the former of the two accolades, Sarah Hamilton was recognised for her work with not-for-profit organisation One of One. In 2015, Hamilton founded the organisation for the purpose of supporting and celebrating women in the music industry.

This year’s inaugural Best Producer Award went to Joelistics (aka Joel Ma) for his incredible work on Ghost Town, his 2019 collaborative EP with Mo’Ju (fka Mojo Juju).

On top of that, industry legend Mary Mihelakos and seminal blues musician Chris Wilson were inducted into the Music Victoria Hall of Fame. With the unfortunate passing of Wilson last year, his family Sarah Carroll, Fenn Wilson and George Carroll accepted his honour and performed a special live rendition of his track, ‘Hand Becomes Fist’.

With the announcement of the Industry Awards, the Music Victoria Awards have now opened voting for their public-voted categories, with an additional seven awards set to be announced with the help of music lovers wishing to make their voice heard.

After public voting closes on Friday November 6, awards including Best Album, Best Band, Best Musician and Best Live Act will then be honoured at this year’s flagship Music Victoria Awards night on Wednesday December 9.

To cap it all off, a further 14 industry-voted awards will be announced at the forthcoming event, including accolades such as Best Regional/Outer Suburban Act, the Archie Roach Foundation Award for Emerging Talent and a range of genre-specific awards such as Best Blues Album, Best Country Album, Best Electronic Act, Best Experimental or Avant-garde Act and more.

The flagship instalment of the Music Victoria Awards goes down on Wednesday December 9 at Melbourne Recital Centre and will also be livestreamed via the Music Victoria website and through Channel 31.

The Music Victoria Awards go down on Wednesday December 9. Make your voice heard by voting for the Music Victoria Awards’ public-voted categories here

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