A Melbourne institution run by various managements for almost 70 years, the People's Concerts were held on Saturday nights at the Temperance Hall from 1872. The first People's Concerts were staged, however, in 1859 at the Trades Hall (Lygon Street), while the Polytechnic Hall was used briefly (ca. 1874). Although regular advertisements did not begin appearing in Melbourne newspapers until the mid-1870s the concerts were still held during the interim.

Conceived as a means of supporting local artists, many leading Australian minstrel and vaudeville performers nevertheless appeared at the People's Concerts during their careers, including Will Whitburn (comedian), the Cottier family (later proprietors of one of Sydney's People's Concerts), Ted Tutty (comedian), Johnny Matlock (comedian) and Doc Rowe (magician). Among the many thousands of acts and practitioners to have been associated with the organisation were Kohlman and Gardner, Dave Gardner, Lily Octavia and Robert Boyd, Will Stevens and Maud Lewis, music director Prof. Fred Ireland, and Nicholas La Feuillade.

[Source: Australian Variety Theatre Archive]