Image: Opera at Jimbour, Queensland Music Festival 2011. Photograph Sean Young.
Across the country cities and towns move to the rhythm of festivals. Regardless of the season or region, our calendars are punctuated by program announcements, ticket sales and, finally, the eagerly anticipated shows, exhibits or presentations by international and local artists, performers and even visionaries.
Some festivals last for a number of days like Perth’s Tura New Music’s Totally Huge New Music Festival, which runs over 10 days this May. Others run for several weeks at sites throughout a city like PUBLIC 2015, which will occur across sites in Perth and regional Western Australia in April.
For a festival, people flock to theatres, galleries, performance spaces and public parks. They enjoy concerts, performances, exhibitions, conferences and more. Festivals create opportunities for engagement and participation for audiences and artists. No matter how ‘mainstream’ or ‘niche’ you are, there is a festival somewhere in Australia that can pique your interest.
It’s not just capital cities that play host to cultural festivities. Dynamic cultural calendars are evident in regional cities and towns across Australia. Celebrations cross disciplines of visual arts, film, music, performance and literature to name a few. Many feature innovative platforms in which genres cross and merge. New ideas are propositioned, discussed and tested.
The vibrancy of a city is reliant on its creative industries. Public art, cultural performances and nightlife enliven cities and towns. Any traveller can pinpoint a city’s dead zone versus a metropolis heaving with excitement. Cultural programs play an important role in enlivening a place and its inhabitants, turning the city from a physical mass of buildings into something pulsating with energy.
Creativity and innovation lie at the heart of a successful arts festival, sparking conversations amongst artists, performers and community members and encouraging experimentation with new ideas.
As Lynda Dorrington Executive Director of the Perth-based organisation FORM, states: ‘Creativity takes many different forms – could be anything from a shared meal to an exhibition opening in a laneway – but broadly speaking, if a community is offering opportunities where people get together, conversations are sparked, talent uncovered, maybe earning power unlocked, then chances are that creativity is the catalyst. And once communities have discovered the enjoyment inherent in all of this, there’s no going back’.
FORM’s mission is ‘a catalyst for positive change’. Their upcoming festival PUBLIC 2015 occurring across Perth and regional Western Australia will interrogate art and its implication for transformation of cities and inhabitants.
Uncovering local talent is at the core of the Queensland Music Festival (QMF). The QMF has been fundamental to the facilitation of cultural life in remote communities, such as Mount Isa in North West Queensland. Through concerts, workshops and the establishment of strong collaborative relationships with community groups over a period of 16 years, the city now boasts its own community symphony orchestra – one of the most remote in the world.
QMF’s Artistic Director, the jazz musician James Morrison, says the work at Mount Isa is an important legacy for Queensland music and indeed the arts in general. Morrison states: ‘It has been really rewarding after all of our work in Mount Isa to see the community come together with its love of music to form … a symphony orchestra. The city can really rejoice and take pride in this achievement.”
Now turning its attention to Logan located virtually half way between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, the QMF is working with the community to stage a massive concert written and performed by local residents which will celebrate the positivity and diversity of the city.
Many festivals have several mandates. Not only are they established to entertain and engage audiences, they are equally important for the arts practitioners themselves. Creating a forum for local talent to share ideas and have access to national and international networks is a fundamental purpose of many arts festivals.
The Perth-based organisation Tura New Music was founded in 1987 to advocate for New Music – an expansive and diverse genre, which encompasses contemporary orchestral works, computer-generated and electronic music. Tura New Music produces outreach and regional touring programs to introduce audiences to an expanded view of what sound art may entail.
Tura New Music’s biennial festival – The 12th Totally Huge New Music Festival happening this May – has at its core purpose to support on-the-ground emerging talent from the region. Through bringing national and international composers and performers together over the ten day festival the event facilitates collaboration and support for artists in the beginning of their careers.
In the myriad of festivals on offer throughout Australia, it’s clear these events have an impact far beyond that of mere entertainment for audiences.
