Mural festival ends on a high note

By Lua Ikenasio

Apr 7, 2025

After six days of painting, the Rochester Mural Festival wrapped up on Saturday.

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Artists were asked to respond to the theme of ‘Life, Love and Music’, painting from Sunday, March 30, right up until the final minutes on Friday.

Experienced artists Jimmy Lee and Anni Jane Linklater from the Shepparton Art Museum were invited to formally judge the winners of the mural festival.

There was an eager crowd on Saturday morning waiting to find out the festival winners. Photo by Lua Ikenasio

There were three major awards to be won on the day — the first prize, judges’ highly commended and people’s choice awards.

The first place was awarded to Albury-Wondonga artist Kristina Greenwood for her work Guardian of Harmony.

Ms Greenwood’s work was inspired by a Studio Ghibli animation called Princess Mononoke.

Kristina Greenwood was this year's mural festival winner. Photo by Lua Ikenasio

Ms Linklater said the theme and colours stood out to the judges.

“This was such an interesting take on the theme. We absolutely loved the surrealism, love how peaceful it was,” she said.

“The black outline was gorgeous with the dream-like very vibrant colours and, just a technical note, one of the reasons the colours are so vibrant is that neon yellow is used in the mixing of it and that’s how it pops so beautifully.”

The award for highly commended went to Marco Pennacchia for La Tarantella and the people's choice award went to Gren Freeman for Rhythms of the Seasons.

'La Tarantella' by Marco Pannacchia. Photo by Lua Ikenasio

The first prize was worth $5000, sponsored by the Mural Festival Committee, while the highly commended recipient received $1000 sponsored by E-Ville Tattoo Echuca.

Ray White Real Estate Rochester sponsored the $500 prize for the people’s choice award.

Sue Taylor and Leanne Picone were two of the 26 'Rochybald' winners. Photo by Lua Ikenasio

The recipients of the community art prize ‘Rochybalds’ were also named on the day, with more than 26 winners from all ages.

Visitors were also able to enjoy the Creative Seeds exhibition by the Rotary Club of Rochester and a Devonshire tea in the Heritage Court House.

As announced in January, this year's festival will be the last event that the current committee will be organising.

'It's Only Life, Love and Rock 'n' Roll - But I Like It', by Chris Duffy. Photo by Lua Ikenasio

Rochester Mural Festival committee member Peter Anderson took time on Saturday to thank everyone involved.

“The current committee is stepping away because we’ve been doing this now for around about 11 years,” he said.

“The mural festival started back in 2011 after the 2011 flood, which we thought was going to be the last one.

“I don’t know whether people have had a good look around Rochester, but there’s around 50 murals that have been installed around Rochester but there's around 50 murals that have been installed around Rochester and we’re very, very proud of them.”