It has grown considerably in size over its 10-year history, with the event starting with 2000 people, building to attract 10,000 attendees in 2015, its 9th year of operation.
[4] Like Rainbow Serpent and Earthcore, Maitreya has traditionally been run on properties, public spaces in country Australia, 3/4 hours out of Melbourne.
[8] The event was entitled "Art, Music, Culture Explosion, and featured a relatively small lineup, including Dick Trevor, Cosmosis, Phony Orphants, Sensifeel, Atmos and Psyseek.
[11] Second Maitrey was held 6–9 March 2009 and featured a number of overseas psytrance DJs including Etnica, Human Traffic, Antix, Freq and Andromeda.
[14] After two years, the council moved the Festival out of Carisbrook, largely because of noise complaints, but noted the loss of revenue.
The line up once again featured a range of artists, including Ace Ventura, Alex Smoke, Basic, Chromatone, E-Clip, Grouch, Headroom, Human Element / DJ Martin, Hypnocoustics, Jiser, Klopfgeister, LOUD, Young Kim, Mad Maxx.
[16] 2014 also saw Maitreya held in the same area, and this year featured artists such as Antix/Fiord, Child, Timmus, Moodmachine, Yahel Sherman, Cid Inc., Fabio & Moon, Dick Trevor, Major 7, Sonic Species, Symphonix, Ecliptic, Burn In Noise, Circuit Breakers, Perfect Stranger (musician), X-Noise, Antix & Ford, Tron.
Artists here included Terrafractyl, Unseen Dimension, Basic, Ozzy, Jekyll, Interpulse, Sekkt, Hypnagog, Tom Cosm, U-One, Staunch, Timmus, Dark Nebula and Mood Machine and internationals DJ Tristan, E-Clip, Tube & Berger.
[21] Local residents, some facing huge financial loss, protested, including starting an online petition asking the Council to allow the event to run.