St Kilda Festival 2011

The Melbourne bayside suburb of St Kilda is renowned for its colourful culture, great music venues and restaurants, galleries and relaxed beachside vibe. For the annual St Kilda Festival though, everybody’s just doing what they do best but turning it up to 10, says Festival Director Adele Denison. St Kilda’s special creative intensity means the Festival can present a diverse range of everything from the visual arts to theatre to poetry and dance, but especially live music.
Things get started on Saturday 5 Feburary with a fabulous day of indigenous artists and welcome at the O’Donnell Gardens. Yalukit Willam Ngaregee or “people place gathering” in traditional Boonwurrung language began as part of the Commonwealth Games in 2006 and is a special part of the local cultural celebration that is the St Kilda Festival.
Starting with a traditional Welcome to Country in the early afternoon through the day will be the likes of Lady Lash, The Medics and Radical Sun. Stick around for the Sunset Ceremony, which promises to be a very special event, celebrating the diversity of Melbourne’s indigenous community and using most of the park area. Guided by Senior Elder Aunty Carolyn Briggs, Artistic Director Jacob Boehme and ‘Maximised by Chunky Move the ceremony will involve participants from all over Melbourne, including Footscray, Fitzroy and Frankston.
Many people when they think of the St Kilda Festival think only of Festival Sunday, which will be next weekend. Over the next week, however, over 90 bands will be playing at every kind of indoor and outdoor venue, including restaurants and record shops around St Kilda as part of Live n Local. On the normally quite Monday night Rob Draper, Ainslie Wills and Alana Bruce are coming together away from their bands to do a special one off collaboration of new music created especially for the festival at Veludo (175 Ackland Street)..
Then Wednesday night the Espy will have the sort of good old dirty rock n roll it’s famous for with a line up of three local bands, The Mercy Kills, The Workinghorse Irons and Engine Three Seven. Also a series of four professional development forums are being presented in partnership with Music Victoria and the Music Managers Forum that will provide invaluable advice and opportunities to new and emerging artists.
The big Festival Sunday next weekend, 13 February, will have six dedicated music stages. The best known is the lively Main Stage on the foreshore that looks out to the bay, which Denision describes as the Pop Rock Stage. This year the Main Stage will feature Jebediah, Paris Wells, Hungry Kids of Hungary and Tim Finn among others.
The O’Donnell Gardens at the end of Ackland Street will have everything from jazz, soul and hip hop to RnB. The Alfred Gardens will be more laid back with a mix of world music and folk that still promises to get people up and dancing. The Push stage part of the Freeza program is by and for young people and is drug, alcohol and smoke free. New to this year’s festival the Live N Local stage will feature 10 local bands that have been part of Live N Local through the week giving punters a second chance to check them out.
One not to miss, the New Music Nova stage features unsigned bands who have apply to be part of the festival. A panel of judges selected the 10 bands who will each play for half an hour. Audience votes via the St Kilda Festival website will decide the winner who will receive $5000 cash, studio time and the opportunity to headline the Main Stage of the festival next year.
Dension says she’s never seen anything like the line of new bands this year. ‘They’re all, without exception amazing,’ she says. It’s will be a chance to see what the buzz is about surround Stonefield, four girls still in school who play Led Zeppelin inspired anthemic rock and are booked to play Glastonbury this year. But there will also be for Pony Face, the mesmerizing Lady Lash and The Vauderville Smash. ‘You could definitely stay at that New Music Stage all day and not be disappointed,’ says Denison.
Catani Gardens next to Pier Road on the beach front will be a family friendly area which includes the Kids Zone with child friendly entertainment from 10am – 5pm as well as workshops and kids soccer clinics and fishing lessons. There will also be a Ratha Yatra Parade and heaps of multicultural activities at the Hare Krishna Vedic Village such as Bollywood dance displays and cooking demonstrations.
Festival Sunday is a family friendly event and making sure that the environment is as safe as possible is very important to festival organisers. Channel 10-produced television commercials are supporting the message that the St Kilda Festival is an alcohol free event.
So gather your people, you know the place, and head down to St Kilda to support some great local and live music and arts.