Festival Hall, Music venue in West Melbourne, Australia
Festival Hall is a heritage-listed multi-purpose venue at 300 Dudley Street in West Melbourne. Its main floor covers 288 square metres and can seat up to 4,586 people, or hold 5,445 standing; the stage adds 160 square metres of elevated space. Floor-to-ceiling curtains allow smaller configurations of 1,741 seated or 2,600 standing.
The West Melbourne Stadium opened on 3 November 1913 with the Mehegan-Wells boxing fight, developed by Sydney promoter Reginald Leslie Baker. In 1915 John Wren and Dick Lean of Stadiums Limited took control, running boxing and professional wrestling. A fire destroyed it in 1955; it was rebuilt for the 1956 Olympics, hosting boxing, basketball and gymnastics. Renamed Festival Hall in the early 1960s, it gained permanent heritage protection in November 2018.
Locals nicknamed the venue "the House of Stoush" for its boxing bouts, which featured fighters such as Lionel Rose, Johnny Famechon and Anthony Mundine. It has also hosted professional wrestling, roller derby, ballroom dancing and religious gatherings, and served as a hiring point for dock work during the Great Depression.
Festival Hall stands at 300 Dudley Street in West Melbourne. The main floor covers 288 square metres and the stage adds 160 square metres of elevated space. Seated events hold up to 4,586 people, or 5,445 with a standing floor; floor-to-ceiling curtains allow smaller configurations of 1,741 seated or 2,600 standing.
The building earned the nickname 'House of Stoush' during its boxing era, a local name that reflected its importance to the fighting community. This quirky chapter is often overlooked by visitors today, though it shaped the character of the place from the start.
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