- Liane Morris
New Annual Festival Ignites Newcastle Ten Days of Art, Music, and Cultural Innovation
City of Newcastle's flagship cultural event, New Annual, will return on 27 September with a vibrant mix of immersive dance, music, visual art and theatre. An inaugural First Night street party will set the scene for New Annual's 2024 program, filling the precinct around City Hall with a free, all-ages opening night celebration.
Newcastle City Hall's iconic balcony will be transformed into a stage, and King Street will be temporarily closed as renowned First Nations singer Mitch Tambo officially kicks off the 10-day New Annual festival. Tambo is a proud Gamilaraay man who blends traditional Aboriginal sounds and language with contemporary beats and production. The night features two mesmerising and soul stirring performances of Tower Divas by Corrina Bonshek and Collaborators combining Yolngu songstress Gambirra Illume, Maori sonic weaver Whaia, and Korean-born vocalist Sunny Kim. Expect DJ sets and local bands, food trucks, roving performances and more!
Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said New Annual is the catalyst for Newcastle’s cultural events sector to take centre stage alongside leading national events.
“Since launching New Annual in 2021, we've invested around $3 million into developing and delivering this flagship festival for Newcastle as part of our wider commitment to arts and culture in our city," Cr Nelmes said.
"In that time, and on the back of its diverse and ambitious programs, New Annual has cemented its place in the events calendar, attracting 95,000 visitors to Newcastle across its first three years.
"The festival continues to strengthen Newcastle's position as a cultural tourism destination, which generates an economic boost for local businesses through hotel stays and increased visitor spending in the city."
This is the fourth festival and the third curated by Adrian Burnett, a former senior dancer and resident choreographer with the Australian Ballet who also spent spent six years as the Director of Multiartform and Dance at Creative Australia. Burnett has brought his industry connections and experience to the development of the festival.
“New Annual has been developed through a consultative process with Hunter and national stakeholders,” said Burnett.
“Different festival models were considered. The team looked at the major national festivals and the Sydney Fringe, for example, but there’s a lot of feedback from the arts industry that artists often can’t afford to present their work in a fringe model, and we wanted to create more opportunities for artists and build the capacity of the sector in Newcastle.
“Our strategic priorities sit around reputation, driving tourism with world-class events, showcasing unique businesses, First Nations artists and delivering it all within an accessible, sustainable event practice. Sitting beneath that is the New Annual’s Made New program, which enables us to build capacity.
“Made New commissions new works with a different theme each year, and artists are invited to submit EOIs. These are then considered by a panel of subject matter experts – community representatives, the Civic Theatre, and the Art Gallery, which provides opportunities for other perspectives and ideas to be included in the program. This year’s theme was harmony and dissonance.
“The 2024 theme was influenced by last year’s Dancenorth Australia production of Noise, which included community participation of 100 local drummers. That experience became a catalyst for this year to build on community engagement.”
Indeed, internationally renowned contemporary dance centre Dancenorth Australia returns to New Annual again this year as part of a national tour with their groundbreaking new show Wayfinder, which is sure to be a highlight of the festival. Physical exuberance, sonic resonance, and collective exhilaration explode onto the stage in a kaleidoscopic fusion of dance, music, and visual art, with light and sound distributed throughout the audience, building intimacy, connection and joy.
Artistic Director of Dancenorth Australia, Kyle Page, speaks highly of New Annual and sees Newcastle as a vibrant city.
“Last year’s performance of Noise with one hundred local drummers performing alongside our dancers was all about the joy of connection through that participation element.
"In many ways I see the regional festivals as leading the way for our industry."
"Our experience last year was incredible, quite extraordinary in the way that the community came together. It was a melting pot, a meeting place and really quite special.
“Wayfinder premiered at the Brisbane festival in 2022 and was born through the isolation, anxiety and polarisation driven by COVID-19. We wanted to create the antithesis of that – a tonic for the times. It’s a reminder of our innate capacity for connection and a celebration of wonder. It’s the idea that it’s a gift to be a human on the planet.
“When it comes to the narrative that contemporary dance is inaccessible, this piece has the power to change that belief. There’s no need to “get it”. If you approach it with a sense of adventure and curiosity, step outside the realms of familiarity and allow yourself to get swept up in the energy of the performance, let yourself feel your feelings, there’s a vibration of joy and a celebration of optimism that can crack into divergent parts of yourself – it’s a powerful experience.”
The Civic precinct will play host to a range of events during the festival, including internationally acclaimed live performances and the profound theatrical performance, Truth to Power Café, which will harness local stories to deliver a profound reflection on the dynamics of power at Newcastle City Hall. Submissions are open until 30 August for community members of all ages who want to participate by telling true and authentic stories. Also in the Civic precinct is the immersive installation Belongings at the Watt Space Gallery, which will share stories of displacement, resilience and hope from six refugees who took asylum in the greater Newcastle region.
Community engagement will also be at the heart of a temporary pavilion, Ngumpi Kinyingarra Oyster House, which will be purpose-built in Honeysuckle's Harbour Square. Presented by Newcastle Art Gallery, Quandamooka artist Megan Cope will use the space to deliver a 10-day participatory project celebrating local oysters, collaboration and environmental stewardship.
Honeysuckle won't be the only new performance space popping up in this year's program, with local family favourite Curious Legends drawing audiences down to the sand at Newcastle Beach for their immersive oceanic experience Whale Song, which fuses large-scale puppetry, community art and singing.
The Harold Lobb Concert Hall at the Newcastle Conservatorium of Music provides the acoustically rich setting for a number of performances, including Rising from the Ashes: An Orchestral Suite and Matricide, created by local Indigenous composer Jacob Cummins and performed by the Newcastle Youth Orchestra. The Youth Orchestra was one of the four local creative organisations selected through the Made New program for new works – a total of $94,500 was offered under the program as part of a five-year plan to support the region's arts industry. Other Made New program highlights include WonderCity, a participatory wayfinding art adventure through the city brought to life by Tantrum Youth Arts and The Cord, a provocative new contemporary dance work by acclaimed First Nations choreographer Jasmin Sheppard, commissioned by Newcastle based dance company Catapult Choreographic Hub.
Inter Human x Intra Digital offers an immersive visual art experience delivered by Art Thinking, while Morphology will see Built In-Kind and Everett Creative collaborate with members of the public through a series of workshops to create a single sculptural piece, which will be displayed in Wheeler Place, adjacent to the Civic Theatre.
Wheeler Place will also play host to the high energy, all-ages 10-Minute Dance Parties featuring one of Australia's most exciting artists, Joseph O'Farrell (JOF). The artist is currently looking to collaborate with local under-18 talent at his celebratory event and is seeking aspiring DJs, lighting or sound technicians, dancers, music enthusiasts, and all-around party people. They'll be helping facilitate world record attempts, dance competitions, interpretations and ventures into the unknown, all within an accessible shipping container in Wheeler Place. Submissions are open until 30 August.
The New Annual offering is further expanded by the inclusion of two plays from the Civic Theatre's UpStage at the Playhouse program. UpStage is an innovative concept that selects four local works of new or adapted theatrical pieces featuring local talent. It provides support for local artists, infrastructure, promotions and marketing. The two shows included in the New Annual program are Romeo & Juliet: A Reimagining by HER Productions and the locally inspired Karma Kafé by Stray Dogs Theatre Company.
Romeo & Juliet: A Reimagining is a contemporary adaptation seeking to bridge the gap between centuries, weaving the enduring beauty of Shakespearean prose with the visceral power of movement, dance, and physical theatre. Audiences are invited to witness the fusion of past and present in an immersive experience seeking to connect with young people in a way that proves that the timeless can still captivate and inspire the modern soul.
Karma Kafé is a new musical by award-winning playwright, director, dramaturg, and teacher Carl Caulfield and composer Gareth Hudson. It is a celebration of Newcastle’s lively café culture.
Caulfield is a prolific playwright, having had over 28 full-stage productions of his plays, winning five City of Newcastle Drama Awards (CONDA) and one of his plays, The Mystery Of Roger Mullaney, was published by Macmillan in 2004 for use in the drama curriculum in secondary schools. His one-man show about British Goon Peter Sellers, Being Sellers, has been performed all over the world.
“The idea for Karma Kafé came to me a number of years ago,” said Caulfield.
“I spend a lot of time in cafés writing – it’s like a theatre – entrances and exits featuring the natural flow of a community coming and going. I thought it was a good idea for a show.
“Music has started to become really important in my work lately. I’ve directed musicals and operas and am aware of the power of music – so I’ve wanted to write a musical for a while. In Karma Kafé, I use music to show the characters' hopes and dreams, as well as the other world, versus the naturalistic style of the café, which is a different realm.
“Being included in the New Annual program is a wonderful opportunity to have new work promoted. I’m thrilled to be collaborating with the Civic Theatre. As the City of Newcastle builds on creative opportunities, our culture gets stronger and stronger. I’m a big fan of all these cultural endeavours. We’re fortunate that the City of Newcastle offers lots of different opportunities for cultural events. The city seems to have an appetite for it."
Councillor Carol Duncan, chair of City of Newcastle's Community and Culture Advisory Committee and Public Art Reference Group, agrees and has said that New Annual highlights Newcastle’s identity as a creative hub.
"With local artists and performers accounting for more than 50 per cent of this year's programming, New Annual provides a platform to showcase talented Novocastrians alongside national and internationally renowned practitioners," Cr Duncan said.
"Supporting events such as Big Picture Fest as part of New Annual also adds to the city's history of cultural expression, with the creation of six new large-scale murals during the festival set to enhance Newcastle’s public art scene whilst creating an artistic legacy for the community.”
According to Curator and Producer Adrian Burnett, the potential of the festival is well on the way to being realised.
“The quality of the artists is extraordinary,” said Burnett.
“We work hard to get the balance between high art and accessibility, and there is nothing inaccessible. It’s important to push artistic boundaries, but we don’t program in a bubble. There is something for everyone, and we don’t dumb it down either.
"This is the festival of, and for, the Newcastle people and it’s vital that we get that message across.
“We’re very conscious of the cost-of-living crisis and the need to provide lower-cost or free events that everyone can enjoy. The opening night street party, for example, is being funded by Transport NSW, it’s an artist-driven nighttime activation with community participation. This month, we’ll be releasing further details of our free and family events, plus one other largescale project that we’re very excited about.”
New Annual is supported by NSW Government grants under the Multicultural NSW “Stronger Together" program, Transport for NSW "Open Streets" program, Create NSW, and the Destination NSW "Regional Event Fund", as well as presenting partner University of Newcastle.
New Annual will run from 27 September to 6 October with a program of free and low-cost events. Visit www.newannual.com for more details about the program and to secure your tickets, which are on sale now with further event information becoming available in 10 Minute Dance Parties mid-month.
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