Power grab: Takeover of derelict East Perth power plant electrifies Perth

When Perth Festival announced the long-shuttered East Perth Power Station on the Swan River would be its new live music venue and one of their hubs, a place where patrons and artists gather before shows and linger afterwards, I must admit I struggled to see it.

Decommissioned power plants around the world have, of course, been transformed into dazzling arts spaces, such as London’s Tate Modern. But Perth Festival’s incoming artistic director Anna Reece and her team would be restricted to the outside of the building, whose surroundings were not quite as welcoming as a manicured western suburbs lawn or cafe-lined inner-city hipster haven.

When I finally got to see the main stage I was blown away, completely amazed at the imaginative way the Perth Festival crew had used the web of rusted metal beams and struts and the towering corrugated iron walls to create a performing and viewing space so cool you’d think it was dreamed up in a Berlin design studio.

While it looked impressive in broad daylight — I’m sure Perth’s movie-making community will be eyeing the space for their next post-apocalyptic thriller — when the sun set and the lights and music came on, the venue transformed into something truly special, a setting so visually arresting it competed with the act on stage for our attention (it was a night of dancing and drinking and rubbernecking).

Not surprisingly, it was a sweaty affair after a warm Perth summer’s day, with the soaring metallic walls still radiating heat and the concrete slabs on the western side keeping out the sea breeze. But the space is vast enough for patrons to keep a comfortable distance from each other.

Perth Festival also chose well with its opening-night act, South Australian electro-soul duo Electric Fields, in which singer Zaachariaha Fielding used his outsized presence to effortlessly fill the cavernous arena and ignite the hugely appreciative crowd with full-throated versions of their Eurovision Song Contest entries and clubbing classics such as Rhythm of the Night, Ride on Time and Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good).

“What a great space!” Perth Jazz Festival director and event promoter Richard Evans said to me as we were walking out after the show, indicating the once strictly off-limits was now on the radar of the Perth arts and entertainment community.

While everyone was excited by this bold new music venue it probably won’t speed up the process of developing the site, which will take an eye-watering amount of money to develop or to simply preserve. However, thousands of people experiencing this innovative activation over coming weeks and years could put pressure on the government to make a decision on its destiny.