Everyone was stoked to be back in action for our very first Awesome Newcastle for 2026. The sun shown brightly through the windows of our beloved pool room at the Young Street Hotel as we cheerfully cheers’ed to 2026.

For February we welcomed three new guest board members to the team. Nathaniel Bavinton of Urbis, Kirsty Morgan of Bradken and Adam Luker of Business Hunter.

As always, we had three fabulous finalists to kick off the year. Louise Knight of Kiddos went first.

She’s a mother and the founder of Kiddos, small business that sells pre-loved children’s clothes. She is committed to creating sustainable solutions. Her current location is closing and she is seeking an affordable premises to ensure this much-needed service can continue supporting local families and reducing waste. She would use the money for new premises set up costs like truck hire, new signage and appropriate shop fittings from Marketplace.
Next up was David Griffen of The Novocastrian Independent Art Guide.

He explained that after 20+ years as a professional photographer he is increasingly focusing his time on the creative arts and its community. The Novocastrian website is a grassroots, community-focused art guide he’s built singlehandedly to make Newcastle’s creative culture easier to find and engage with. He would use the $1,000 for targeted paid advertising to grow The Novocastrian’s local audience to increase visibility among Newcastle residents.

Our final finalist was Ted Polglase of the 21st Century Beauford.

Ted is 19-years-old, and he explained that the 21st Century Beauford holds weekly all age gigs at the Beauford Hotel in Mayfield where you have to be born post-2000 to play. The aim is to have spot where kids/teens can have a place to have their first couple gigs as most places don’t allow people under the age of 18 to play. He would use the money to put on a young people’s music festival in September and make sure he can cover costs like sound on the day.

As always the board knew they had a tough task at hand but they debated and discussed and cast their votes. We then invited guest board member Nathanial to the stage to give away the money, and also to invite him on as a permanent guest board member for 2026! Hooray!

Nathanial awarded Ted the cash! Congratulations Ted! We can’t wait to come to your festival in September, and we’re so excited that people born in the 20th century are allowed to attend! 😉

Congratulations to Lou and David as well for your awesome efforts! Thanks to everyone for another great Awesome Newcastle. Start brainstorming your next big idea for 2026 and we’ll see you in March!