Geelong Arts Centre

Geelong Arts Centre — Victoria’s largest regional arts venue

Geelong Arts Centre sits on Little Malop Street in central Geelong, an hour’s drive south-west of Melbourne via the Princes Freeway. The Centre underwent a substantial redevelopment between 2019 and 2024 that rebuilt the complex into the largest regional Victorian performing arts venue, with three performance spaces and substantially expanded public realm. It is the regular Geelong touring stop for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra‘s Geelong subscription series, Bell Shakespeare‘s national tour, and Musica Viva Australia‘s Victorian regional programme.

The rooms

• The Story House — 750 seats, the principal mainstage, used for the mainstage touring productions.
• The Open House — 350 seats, the chamber-format theatre, used for smaller-scale touring work and contemporary theatre.
• The Drama Theatre — 200 seats, configurable black-box space.
• Costa Hall — 1,500 seats, the larger concert hall used for the MSO Geelong subscription series and the major touring orchestras.

Getting there and pairing

Drive from Melbourne (1 hour via Princes Freeway) or take the V/Line train from Southern Cross Station (50 minutes to Geelong Station, 5 min walk to the Arts Centre). Pair the production with the Geelong waterfront, the Great Ocean Road day-trip, the Bellarine Peninsula wine region, or the You Yangs national park. Geelong is the easiest regional Victorian cultural-tourism pairing for Melbourne-based audiences and the regional programme has improved substantially since the 2024 redevelopment.