October 21st, 2026Lyall Brooks director of Castlemaine State Festival
Hepburn’s Lyall Brooks has been appointed festival director of the 2028 Castlemaine State Festival – Australia’s longest-running regional multi-arts festival.
The award-winning theatre-maker, producer and arts leader brings more than two decades of experience across Australian performing arts, cultural leadership and community engagement.
A passionate advocate for new Australian work and regional arts, Lyall’s extensive career spans acting in theatre and music theatre, directing, animation, producing and education.
He is the founding artistic director of independent theatre company Lab Kelpie, which he established in 2012 and has since led in developing and touring acclaimed Australian plays to audiences across the country.
Most recently he was the award-winning education manager at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre, also serves as deputy chair of Theatre Works St Kilda and is completing a Master of Fine Arts in Cultural Leadership at the National Institute of Dramatic Art.
Originally from a small Gippsland farming community, Lyall experienced firsthand the transformative impact of access to the performing arts in regional Victoria, shaping a lifelong commitment to the creative possibilities that exist beyond metropolitan centres.
“I’m genuinely thrilled to be taking this on, and feel a real responsibility,” Lyall said. “The festival has played such a significant role in the cultural life of regional Victoria, bringing artists, audiences and communities together since 1976. It’s older than I am – although only just.
“I keep coming back to the idea of the festival as Castlemaine ‘thinking out loud’: a chance to share with each other, and with the world, something about who we are, what matters to us, what fires us up and who we might want to become.
“I want us to make a festival that could only happen here, in this place, at this particular moment. Something distinctive, ambitious, a little bit quirky, and unmistakably Castlemaine.”
Castlemaine State Festival board chair Gary McClure welcomed the appointment. “Lyall brings a terrific combination of artistic vision, practical experience and a genuine commitment to community. He understands how to bring artists and audiences together, and we’re excited to see what he brings to the festival in 2028.”
The 2028 Castlemaine State Festival will take place from March 17-26.
Image: Jack Lewis
