SHINE BRIGHT LIKE A DARWIN
Darwin is set to sparkle for 18 days and nights, as Darwin Festival splashes its magic across the CBD, and beyond.
WORDS TIERNEY WHITE
WE DON’T HAVE to tell you twice to get excited, dear readers. Darwin Festival is a time of the year so many of us look forward to, and if you’re yet to experience it, then boy, are you in for a ride.
Dry season days turn to sparkling balmy nights, as the NT’s largest arts and culture Festival returns with a program packed with comedy, cabaret, music, theatre, thought-provoking events, and more.
Celebrated artists and acts from across the country and the sea descend upon the Top End, but Artistic Director Kate Fell says it’s also the perfect opportunity to shine the spotty on local creatives.
“It’s a really important part of the Festival to program, highlight, and showcase our incredible artists here. It makes the Festival unique, and for people coming to Darwin, that’s what they want to see – they want to see artists from here, they want to see something they can’t see in every other festival,” she says.
“But then also, for locals, there’s artists they might not know of, and also, those artists get an opportunity to do something different as well.”
Local acts that have flexed their muscle on the Festival stage in previous years return with more bolstered versions of their work.
“Shalom Kaa is a really great example of that … he talked about [Purple Plastic Maori] that he’s done [at the Festival] before, but he really wanted to take it to the next level. He wanted to be on the big stage … and he said, ‘I’ve always wanted to have live musicians, I want a kapa haka’. I love that about the Festival, that artists can create something new,” Fell says.
“Ben Graetz, again – the show he did last year, Tina a Topical Love Story … really was such a love letter to Darwin and the creatives here, growing up here, and this year he’s got his new show, A Night of Rock and Roll with Bogan Villea, which will be so, so much fun.
“Another really special project that we’re doing is with Naina Sen, and her video project, Shundori. She’s been working on this project for five years, and we were able to help secure some funding for her … which helped her be able to take it to that next level, that she can present it exactly how she wants to on a bigger scale, and it will go around Australia and India as well after [the world premiere] at the Festival.”
Whilst it’s important to have a big ol’ flex on what’s created within the Territory – because let’s face it, creativity pumps through our veins – 35
another important element is to give local audiences and artists access and exposure to creativity from lands afar.
Making the trip across the ditch is New Zealand reggae band L.A.B, arguably one of the country’s hottest acts, for the huge opening weekend event at the new Fort Hill Parklands site. India’s Suhani Shah is the world’s most subscribed mentalist and comes armed with a show sure to leave audiences in complete and utter awe. Gill Hicks survived the London terrorist Bombings in 2005, and shares the experience that resulted in losing both of her legs with a show that’s as entertaining as it is moving.
There’s also the chance to catch some of the most elite creatives Australia has to offer, with performances from Bangarra Dance Theatre, Opera Australia, CIRCA, and the highly anticipated return of Strut & Fret Production House in The Spiegeltent. Plus, you can catch performances from Guy Sebastian and Sarah Blasko, whilst Shane Nicholson and Sara Storer team up with David Garnham & The Reasons to Live for a huge night of music in Palmerston with Buffalo Country.
Other exciting inclusions include a Festival Harbour Cruise and local bar hopping tours, free nightly music and entertainment in Festival Park, an insane amount of incredible art exhibitions to marvel at, and the return of a highlight for many, Club Awi, the late-night Festival nightclub produced by James Mangohig and Jocelyn Tribe.
However your Festival experience rolls out this year, Fell and her merry team know you’ll lean in.
“Darwin audiences are incredible. Last year, Marlon Williams said, ‘I feel like I’m in a dream, this is the most special concert’ because the audiences are listening, they are engaged, you could hear a pin drop. I love that about Darwin audiences … when I arrived in Darwin, I could see how much they were willing to take a risk on something,” Fell says.
“We think all year ‘round about the ingredients – the artists, the audience, the timing, the moment, the place … what we’re trying to make people feel. And it’s that sense of – and I know I use the word magic a lot – but it is magic, it is something that happens.
“It’s slightly intangible, it’s ephemeral, it’s magical, it’s awe-filled. All of those words, we often don’t have the language for it, but you feel it. Everyone that comes, as well as our locals … is feeling something that’s really special.”
Darwin Festival
WHEN THU 7 – SUN 24 AUG
INFO darwinfestival.org.au
Image: Charlie Bliss.
