Venue
A coastal conference escape, Port Macquarie is where delegates can combine the pleasures of an idyllic waterfront setting with a premium conference venue. Port Macquarie is a picturesque seaside location where delegates can relax, recharge & refocus while gaining professional development from some of the best choral conductors in Australia.
Ideally situated between Sydney and Brisbane on the beautiful NSW coast, and at the mouth of the Hastings River, Port Macquarie is the perfect conference escape. Here, delegates can enjoy the pleasures of pristine beaches, coastal walks, surfing, sail boarding, swimming, fishing, whale watching and even camel riding, while gaining professional development from some of the best choral conductors from Australia and overseas. Port Macquarie is not only a popular seaside and riverside destination; it is also a thriving regional centre, boasting a plethora of restaurants, retail centres and accommodation options.
Port Macquarie was discovered by John Oxley in 1818, and named after the Governor of NSW at the time, Lachlan Macquarie. In 1821 the town was founded as a penal settlement, with 60 convicts arriving under the direction of Captain Francis Allman. By 1830 free settlers began to arrive and soon outnumbered the convicts, but it wasn’t until the 1960’s that Port Macquarie began to realise its potential as a tourist destination and it experienced a period of rapid growth. Today Port Macquarie has around 65,000 residents.
Choralfest 2010 will be held in Port Macquarie’s new Arts, Conference and Entertainment Centre, the Glasshouse. Opening in July 2009, this $50 million centre is at the cutting edge of environmental design and technical excellence. Its 606-seat fully tiered auditorium, ample foyers and several breakout spaces make it ideal for Choralfest concerts, rehearsals and interest sessions.
Ideally located in the heart of Port Macquarie’s town centre, the Glasshouse is within a few minutes’ walk to a wide variety of quality accommodation, restaurants, shops and attractions.
The Port Macquarie's Glasshouse Arts, Conference and Entertainment Centre
Scenic Port Macquarie is the home of the Glasshouse, offering a world of cultural experience, state-of-the-art technical facilities and flexible venues for performance, leisure and hire.
Open from the 1 July 2009, Port Macquarie’s new Arts, Conference and Entertainment Centre is the ideal venue for your next event or conference.
The Glasshouse is Australia’s newest regional facility of this size, scale and quality and is purpose designed to accommodate conferences of up to 606 delegates in a fully tiered auditorium or up to 123 delegates in the Ross Family Studio, along with ample foyer and breakout spaces over multiple levels, commercial catering facilities and over 600m2 of international standard Gallery space.
Featuring innovative and environmentally sustainable design, the centre provides high quality exhibition, conference and performing arts facilities, specifically designed to reduce reliance on non-renewable energy sources. The centre aims to set regional benchmarks in sustainable design whilst boasting the region’s most modern set of technical and production infrastructure and highest level of patron comfort.
- 606 seat tiered, state-of-the-art auditorium, with a full flytower and orchestra pit
- Ross Family Studio - a black box studio exhibition and performance space
- International standard Regional Gallery space with over 600m2 floor area over 3 levels
- Large foyer spaces able to be used as dedicated tradeshow and exhibition areas
- Commercial catering and café-bar onsite
- Full fibre-optic communications and broadcast capabilities with audio-visual support provided in-house
- Heritage & archaeological displays dating from the 1820's
THEATRE
The Glasshouse Theatre is the only proscenium arch theatre of this type on the Mid-North Coast of NSW. With acoustic design by Arup, the same engineers who have worked on the world’s largest opera houses and concert halls, the Glasshouse Theatre is designed to provide an unrivalled level of audience comfort and technical excellence, for an enhanced Theatre experience.
