Hillsong Church Buys Iconic Melbourne Music Venue

Festival Hall is set to become the new Melbourne home of Hillsong. 

The megachurch announced it had purchased the iconic music venue yesterday, as reported by NME, during a live-stream event with leaders Brian and Bobbie Houston on YouTube. 

Brian Houston referred to the purchase as Houston “phenomenal news” and that it would be “the city location for Hillsong Melbourne”. 

The video continued on to say that the building will undergo a "complete renovation" and that while it will be the church's venue, they would still run community events. 

“Hillsong Church will be the anchor tenant. In other words, every Sunday morning, or whenever we have each to be honest, it will be our venue," said Houston. 

"But we’re going to continue running it as a community venue."

The venue was opened in May 1915 as the West Melbourne Stadium. Over the years, it has seen shows from The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Iggy Pop, Rage Against The Machine and more. 

In 2018, the building gained heritage status after it was due to be sold to developers. 

See the announcement video from the Hillsong group below (starts around 27 minutes), as well as proposed renders for the renovations (images via YouTube).