Puckle Street Projection Festival to launch in Moonee Ponds
As a Council known for its long-term support of the arts, Moonee Valley City Council has today announced a new free festival, the Puckle Street Projection Festival (PSPF) taking place 2 – 11 July 2027.
Over ten nights in the July school holidays, PSPF will transform the heart of Moonee Ponds into a temporary network of moving-image installations, inviting audiences to experience the familiar main street in new ways while enjoying the hospitality of our local bars and eateries.
Inspired by the creative energy of the long-running Gertrude Street Projection Festival (2009 - 2023), this isn’t a typical animated projection festival – audiences can expect the unexpected and bring friends and family along to experience a homegrown contemporary outdoor media art exhibition this winter in Moonee Valley.
Building façades, shopfronts, windows, laneways and other unexpected surfaces will transform into an interconnected outdoor exhibition. Audiences will move along Puckle Street, encountering different perspectives, stories and imagined worlds.
Projection art inherently exists between states; material and immaterial, architecture and image, past and future, public and private, physical and digital. A luminous lineup of artists will cast light onto unexpected surfaces to reveal the multiple worlds and possibilities that coexist within a single street.
Produced by Council's experienced in-house Festivals and Events team (national finalists at last year’s Australian Events Awards), creative direction for the event is being overseen by internationally recognised projection artist and former Co-curator of the Gertrude Street Projection Festival, Yandell Walton. With artist engagement an integral component of the event, Yandell will be supported by a strong creative team, including Melania Jack, Creative Producer of PUNQ Festival QLD.
Moonee Valley Deputy Mayor, Phil Burn said: “This exciting new festival will light up our iconic Puckle Street for audiences to enjoy the space in a completely new way.
“This new festival celebrates the values, principles and objectives of our current Igniting Creativity Arts and Culture Strategy 2023-27.”
Creative Director Yandell Walton said: “Audiences will encounter a network of light-activated sites through artworks that uncover histories embedded in place, respond to contemporary communities, explore the urban environment and imagine our shared futures. Other interventions will transform architecture entirely, creating moments where the everyday street becomes strange, playful and otherworldly.”
With the beloved Gertrude Street Projection Festival holding its last event in 2023, Puckle Street is set to put projection back on the map.
The free Puckle Street Projection Festival takes place 2 – 11 July 2027, 6pm – 11pm each evening featuring family friendly contemporary media art and roving street performances set to light up the night.
Expressions of Interest (EOI) for local artists to participate will open in November 2026.
Visit the Moonee Valley City Council website for festival updates and further information.
Puckle Street Projection Festival is an initiative of Igniting Creativity 23–27, Moonee Valley City Council’s Arts and Culture Strategy.
Image credit: Human Effect by Yandell Walton.