Some of you may not know that Australia’s most northern and only tropical arts festival was born out of the destruction and devastation of a natural disaster over 35 years ago. Cyclone Tracy tore through the Northern Territory’s capital city on Christmas Eve in 1974 leaving behind 68 dead and 25,000 Darwin residents homeless. There was talk to abandon Darwin’s city site all together but many were determined to rebuild.
Three years later in 1977 Northern Territory director of health Dr Charles Gurd suggested celebrating the town’s revival with a Festival and so on July 1978, the Bougainvillea Festival was born. In 2003 the festival was renamed Darwin Festival. So there’s your daily dose of cultural history.
Today Darwin Festival is strong as ever, kicking off next week August 7th the festival runs over 18 days and celebrates music, dance, comedy, theatre and other cultural delights.Featuring Adalita, Bobby Alu, Courtney Barnett, The Kite String Tangle and Seekae among the impressive line up it’s safe to say this is set to be one of their biggest yet.
Apart from the impressive musical line up Darwin Festival is playing host to a number of other important cultural events exclusive only to Darwin, in hopes of getting an insider’s hottest tips we chatted with Edwina Dunn the festival’s director who gave us a run down on the five things only Darwin has, thanks to Darwin festival.
The Groundbreaking Urban Street Night Club
“In this very special event, the sights and sounds of Phnom Penh come to Festival Park with Cambodian artist Lim Sokchanlina’s video installation Urban Street Night Club. Sokchanlina’s films fences as physical and physiological barometers of urban change. For his installation he projects videos taken of a fence – located around a construction site in Phnom Penh’s burgeoning entertainment district – onto a wall in the heart of the Darwin Festival action.”
8th Aug- 24th Aug.
Temporary Territory Will Be Delighting Unsuspecting Commuters
“Independent artists from Yogyakarta; and Indonesia’s forefront artist initiative RuangRupa will create a surprise public art project, Temporary Territory. We asked Jakartan artists from RuangRupa to respond to our local Darwin environment and guerrilla makeover our bus stops for unsuspecting commuters. We knew this kind of project would both excite and baffle Darwinians and I’m quite partial to a festival project that takes art to the people by stealth. See the everyday in a different way as Temporary Territory creatively transforms your local bus stop.”
7th Aug- 24th Aug.
Singing Sensations The Choir of Man
“Choir of Man is an electrifying new theatrical event that takes a group of ordinary Aussie blokes and turns them into singing sensations. Directed by legendary Australian director, writer, producer and performer Wayne Harrison, Choir of Man is a bold new work celebrating music and mateship. Sway, tap and sing along as these sensitive new age guys belt out a string of huge hits and lesser-known gems in an unforgettable musical event.”
7th, 8th, 9th & 10th Aug.
Just A Few ‘Blokes’
“Darwin’s original Bboy Matt Cornell along side Josh Thomson bring a salt-of-the-earth dance show entitled Blokes on the topic of the male psyche following a residency at the Coconut Grove Men’s Shed. Blokes is an investigation into the archetype of the Australian bloke. Using their own cultural heritage as a starting point, dance artists Matt and Josh aim to understand what it really means to be a ‘bloke’ today, by spending time with the very men who define themselves as such.”
23rd & 24th Aug.
A Premiere Collaboration In Between Sounds
“In a world premiere collaboration, Chinese-Australian MC and spoken word artist Joelistics (aka Joel Ma of TZU) joins Filipino-Dutch-Australian producer/songwriter James Mangohig of Sietta to explore the soundtrack of their mixed heritage. The combination of local Sietta musician James Mangohig and Joelistics is a genius partnership that combines their collective Asian Australian energies. I’m pegging their new show “In Between Sounds” as a national hit following their Darwin premiere. Watch this space”
16th Aug.
Darwin Festival run from 7th – 24th August. For more info visit www.darwinfestival.org.au.
