Special Business Rates Program

Voyage is a live music, spoken word and contemporary dance event that will form part of the 2023 Newcastle Writers Festival program. Across two nights, a diverse range of musicians, performance poets and dancers will explore 'a new kind of storytelling' at Newcastle Library and Playstate Curate.

Acts will include The Majishans, singer/songwriter Kay Proudlove, Catapult Dance, visual artists and a number of local performance poets and spoken word artists. By providing evening entertainment and moving hundreds of NWF patrons towards Darby Street and along Hunter Street, Voyage will benefit the night-time economy of these precincts.

Newcastle Food Month (NFM) originated in 2021 with the generous support of City of Newcastle. NFM provides an event framework around which Newcastle cafes / restaurants / hotels and food events can encourage Novocastrians and visitors to dine out and attend food related events in April 2023.

NFM provides structure, marketing and promotion. The program is then marketed to the greater Newcastle area and beyond, bringing diners into the City/Darby St precinct. The program 'platform' provides businesses the opportunity to participate in the entry level Plate Date- $25 for a special meal and a beverage, or more significant events, pairing food with music.

100 artists are taking to the streets of Newcastle’s CBD and Darby St, bringing broad brushstrokes of brilliance to portable walls, businesses and outdoor spaces throughout the city as part of a month-long live painting festival, EASEL’D.

In partnership with 20+ Newcastle CBD and Darby St businesses, artists will be painting live on easels, over four consecutive weekends - in the open air and inside Newcastle CBD’s diverse mix of cafes, shopfronts, pubs, galleries and outdoor spaces. Get ready for a stellar lineup of artists’ workshops, masterclasses, host talks, guided tours and an artists’ trail.

Story Spots are bite-sized animated videos that shine a light on the stories behind 12 unique businesses, events or precincts within the CBD and Darby Street zones. These videos will serve to attract new visitors as well as lapsed locals to these establishments.

Story Spots are a celebration of the local characters who contribute to the lively culture of Newcastle. These videos will be launched at a live event at the Lovett Gallery. We envisage these videos being screened at the Newcastle Tourist Information Centre, the Digital Library, the CN app as well as participants' social media platforms.

WH!P - Women of the Hunter in Photography have developed a concept to share portraiture and stories of local women with our community, utilising storytelling through photographic portraiture and personal narratives that celebrate the creative and career journeys our local women have untaken in their life.

These portraits and narratives will be displayed for International Women's Day (IWD) in 2023 (March 8). We will hold a photographic exhibition and opening/launch for IWD, as well as work alongside local businesses and City of Newcastle to promote, share and celebrate this photographic cultural initiative in varied and innovative ways.

The Gin Event will bring together gin distilleries, food vendors and entertainers with locals and visitors from around NSW for the appreciation of gin at the Newcastle Museum Park. Gin lovers will get a taste of new gin and liqueurs, food and be entertained in a great historical Newcastle location, creating positive promotional exposure. Local distilleries will showcase and sell their products to attendees, promoting their businesses, contributing to the creative and culturally rich community.

The Newcastle Weekly (NW) will create three six-page special feature sections in its publication, promoting all things Darby Street. This will be inserted into the December 2022 – March 2023 editions of the NW and uplifted via all NW digital channels. NW boasts a monthly reach over 150,000, across print and digital.

An annual block festival curated to showcase 70+ emerging and established musicians in the Newcastle scene. This event will be spread across supporting venues around our local West End block.

Newy Car Club will host 3 events leading in to the V8 Supercar weekend in March 2023. These three events will engage the Newy Car Community and engage businesses within the SBR City Centre area.

These events will increase community and business interest around the V8 Supercars. These events will allow businesses to promote and entice the community, along with our members, to visit their establishments to stimulate spending.

The project is working in collaboration with Wallsend Town
Business Association, Samaritans, and the other four Op Shops of Nelson Street to bring life back into weekends in Wallsend by establishing the Wallsend Op Shop Trail.

This will be achieved this with events, activations and a
community engagement strategy to address the lack of
volunteer support in the Op Shops, and shift the focus of volunteering to create a more diverse cohort of volunteers. Increased volunteer support will allow stores to open Saturdays, attracting new clientele to the region. Interactive events each month will further include and engage the community.

This socially-engaged, community storytelling project culminates in large-format images being pasted up in the Wallsend Business Precinct.

'And Then, They are No Longer Invisible - Wallsend' is a
photo-storytelling project that honours the seniors in our
communities. Through the sharing of their stories, we collectively create space for new narratives around aging, isolation and ageism. The project includes community workshops, local business engagement and a community art installation throughout the Wallsend Business Precinct that encourages social cohesion and visitation to the local area.

A series of Halloween themed activations to engage the public and draw foot traffic to the Wallsend business precinct. This will include two days of roving performances, trick or treating in
resident businesses, and a costume making challenge that
centres on local op shops & craft stores.

The program will then culminate in a larger-scale family event in Wallsend (possibly the the Village carpark), including installations, performances, interactive activities and workshops with community groups and Wallsend businesses. Collateral will be circulated promoting local business in association with the events and activities.

Involving 2-3 established mural artists within the Newcastle/Port Stephens area, this project will design and create a mural that benefits the appearance of the main street of Wallsend and the businesses that reside there.

Introducing a mural to that main hub will lift the overall beautification and energy to the area.

This project aims to reinvigorate New Lambton with veins of
living greenery and edible plants that are IoT integrated, data-collecting pieces of sustainable infrastructure, a symbol of innovation and Newcastle’s commitment to its 2030 goals.

The project involves the installation of standalone smart
gardening systems (fixed to shopfront facades) throughout New Lambton. Our overall goal is to connect Newcastle with veins of greenery throughout Wallsend, Hamilton, New Lambton and
the City.

This project aims to reinvigorate Hamilton with veins of
living greenery and edible plants that are IoT integrated, data-collecting pieces of sustainable infrastructure, a symbol of innovation and Newcastle’s commitment to its 2030 goals.

The project involves the installation of standalone smart
gardening systems (fixed to shopfront facades) throughout Hamilton. Our overall goal is to connect Newcastle with veins of greenery throughout Wallsend, Hamilton, New Lambton and the City.

Newcastle Fringe will establish a dedicated performance precinct in Hamilton for their 2023 Festival which occurs over 2 weekends in March. It will build on the Festival's existing presence in Beaumont Street by expanding the number of shows, creating a family-friendly component, creating street signage/digital art, and staging micro-performances in local businesses.

The aim is to consolidate relationships with local businesses; activate Beaumont Street; increase patronage and foot traffic. This will provide income for local businesses, employment and promotion for Fringe artists; and generate unique online content for cultural tourism.

The proposed installation site is in a laneway in Iris Capital's new East End development between Wolfe and Perkins Streets. The proposed laneway is a main entrance point to the piazza, giving this entrance a facelift with a Herb Urban installation will uplift
the entire experience when visiting the piazza.

The Darby Street Party (scheduled for 15 October) will provide an exciting new platform for a street celebration for both industry
and community. This event will engage and promote all business
in Darby Street as well as provide further opportunity for
businesses through extended trading hours. The celebration will provide risk free opportunity for businesses to diversify product offerings. The event build will include a street stage with musical performers and entertainers as well as roving artists and theming.

The event will have significant impact on the business sector and creative industry, and will position Newcastle as a contemporary and creative city on the rise.

Shakespeare in the Park will present weekend performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Civic Park across the 2022 summer season. It will feature an ensemble of local performers, to stage a wild, irreverent and magical performance.

Makers and Traders Newcastle was formed in 2019 to showcase a growing group of local creative businesses across the Newcastle inner city. Our goal was to support and strengthen collaboration between businesses and encourage lapsed locals to return to the city.

This project builds on our previous success, with the aim of continuing to foster the community’s capacity to deliver unique visitor and retail experiences in Newcastle. The third iteration of the Newcastle Treasure Map (2022), a printed guide to discovering the MTN network, will continue to help position Newcastle as the Smart Creative City of Australia.

This project will design and paint an interactive mural on the exterior wall of the Community Hive building on Beaumont Street, Hamilton. The mural will make the space more vibrant and welcoming, encouraging people to visit the Hamilton precinct, and increasing foot traffic for businesses.

This project will replace a number of existing mosaics with safe, level, slip resistant installations suitable for insertion in a high foot traffic area.These will beautify the Beaumont Street footpath, honour the suburb's social and entrepreneurial history, encourage engagement with local businesses and celebrate our shared cultural heritage and history. The project will work with emerging ceramic artists from TAFE-Hamilton, Hudson Street Hum and local businesses to recreate historical Beaumont Street in colourful art designed for longevity and authenticity, thereby creating an attractive liveable built environment.