Latest news with #Bundanon
The Guardian
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Winter weekenders: 20 Australian festivals worth travelling for from May to August 2025
Beyond big ticket winter festivals like Sydney's Vivid, Hobart's Dark Mofo and Melbourne's Rising, there's a bounty of smaller events taking place across Australia. Whether you're interested in food, music, film, visual arts or words, you'll find a festival worth booking a weekend around. New South Wales Narooma Oyster festivalFriday 2 May to Sunday 4 MayOn the south coast of NSW, winter oyster season begins with a literal bang – there are fireworks on the Friday night. In addition to tasting stands from oyster farmers across the region, Narooma's Oyster festival features live music, demonstrations from big name chefs like Analiese Gregory and Nornie Bero, a hotly contested shucking championship – plus market stalls, street theatre and bars from local breweries, distilleries and wine makers. There's also visual art curated by the town's spring arts festival River of Art and fancier events like a sunset champagne and oyster cruise, for those who'd like to splash out. Entry to the festival's main day on Saturday costs $45; Friday night's 'warm-up' party is $25; and entry on Sunday is free, as is entry for kids under 16 any day of the event. If you can't get accommodation in Narooma, there are shuttle bus services from surrounding towns, between Batemans Bay, Bermagui and Merimbula. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning MakeGood, BundanonSaturday 17 May and Sunday 18 MayDedicated to improving your life and the planet, MakeGood at Kangaroo Valley gallery Bundanon has assembled a lineup including beloved Gardening Australia presenter Costa Georgiadis, permaculture expert and Milkwood Bakery co-founder Kirsten Bradley and Why Are We Like This? author Zoe Kean for a weekend of talks and hands-on demonstrations. There'll be kid-friendly art tours, workshops on woven-jewellery making by Wiradjuri fibre artist Jessika Spencer and even a wooden-spoon carving session – plus a Saturday night chamber concert by Bronzewing. Events are individually ticketed, starting at $18 for talks and more for workshops, with discounts available if you attend more than one thing over the weekend. South Australia Tasting AustraliaFriday 2 May to Sunday 11 MayTasting Australia is one of Australia's most established food festivals, bringing together a lineup of international and local chefs for dining events, demonstrations and masterclasses. Entry to the festival's main hub in Adelaide is free (though you will have to pay for your food and drink) and comes with a side of live music and visual arts. The festival's main draw are the 150 ticketed experiences that take place not just in Adelaide, but all around South Australia. This year's lineup includes an Indigenous Ingredients 101 cooking class with Indigiearth's Sharon Winsor ($79, Adelaide); a Filipino buffet on the Eyre Peninsula ($70) and more extravagant events like a four course wine-matched seafood lunch on Kangaroo Island ($249). Tasmania Australian Music Theatre festival, Launceston Wednesday 21 May to Sunday 25 MayShow tunes take over the town of Launceston in late May. Ticketed shows include Johanna Allen singing Harold Arlen, a Friday night cabaret and a new staging of 1970s Broadway hit Working, updated to include stories from Tasmanian locals. For free, you can see a choir in a pub, follow singers through Launceston's harvest market, visit a late evening 'Diva Den' or take part in a community sing-along. There's also an extensive education program to coach would-be triple threats in singing, acting and dancing alongside masterclasses taught by Caroline O'Connor, Mark Vincent and Alinta Chidzey. New South Wales Open Field 2025 Arts festival, BerryFriday 13 June to Sunday 15 JuneIt is only the second outing for this biannual contemporary arts festival in the Shoalhaven, first held in 2023. While this year's full lineup is yet to be announced, you can expect some risk-taking programming alongside family events. Already on the agenda is a local First Nations takeover of Berry Rural Youth Hall, overseen by Amanda Jane Reynolds and a performance work by Kenneth Lambert that includes a fleet of choreographed vacuum cleaners. StoryFest, Milton, Ulladulla and MollymookFriday 19 June to Sunday 22 June This festival on the south coast of NSW takes a broad approach to storytelling, with programming spanning fiction, poetry, food and song. The lineup includes Stephanie Alexander, Tim Ross and Gina Chick – plus free poetry with breakfast at delightful Milton cafe Pilgrims. Several events have already sold out, so it is worth planning ahead for this one. A bit further south, from Batemans Bay to Eden, there's also a month-long celebration of mushrooms, Fungi festival, which opens Friday 20 June. Northern Territory Barunga festival, Katherine and surroundsFriday 6 June to Monday 9 JuneHeld in a small Indigenous community 80km south of Katherine, the impressive musical lineup – including Thelma Plum, the Milla Brothers J-Milla and Yung Milla, East Journey, Rrawun Maymuru and Kootsie Don – is just the beginning of Barunga's programming. Showcasing arts and culture from around the Katherine and Arnhem Land regions, the festival includes a sports carnival, market stalls from some of the Territory's top arts centres and workshops including traditional weaving, cooking demonstrations and bush medicine. During the festival, Barunga's population increases tenfold, so visitors are encouraged to camp. An adult three-day festival pass costs $134.13, including camping; with extra fees for powered and unpowered caravan sites. Queensland Vision Splendid Outback Film festival, WintonFriday 27 June to Saturday 5 JulyOutback Queensland's annual film festival is solely focused on Australian cinema and frequently hosts premiere screenings, alongside retrospectives, a short film competition and family-friendly movies. This year's lineup is yet to be announced but film fans can look forward to the setting – The Proposition and Mystery Road were both filmed in and around Winton. While you're in the area, you can get your Jurassic (and Triassic, and Cretaceous) Park on at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum. Tasmania Festival of Voices, HobartFriday 27 June to Sunday 6 JulyNow in its 20th year, this festival caters to singers of all stripes, from choral to musical comedy, to those who would prefer to just sit back and listen. In addition to performances and singalongs, there are a huge range of workshops covering everything from songwriting to protecting your vocal cord health. The festival begins with the Big Sing, a massive free event where everyone is encouraged to lend their voice. Victoria Woodend Winter Arts festivalFriday 6 June to Monday 9 JuneNow in its 20th year, the Macedon Ranges festival has highbrow energy, with classical and jazz music and lectures on literature, design and visual arts. Highlights include an eight-cello ensemble playing Bach, Tchaikovsky and Philip Glass, and a talk by Beatrice Faust biographer Judith Brett. Most events are individually ticketed, with concerts priced at $48 for adults and talks at $25; but there's also a free exhibition with demonstrations from local artists. East Gippsland Winter festivalFriday 20 June to Sunday 20 JulyNow in its fifth year, this month-long festival spans the entire East Gippsland region, combining lantern light and projections with an expansive and eccentric program of events. The full lineup will be announced in May, but highlights so far include a medieval fire festival (complete with costumes) an op-shop ball and a scarecrow-making competition. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Western Australia Ningaloo Sky festival, ExmouthFriday 27 June to Sunday 29 JuneRight in the middle of whale shark season, the Coral Coast has a new biennial festival. While the lineup is yet to be announced, the event is set to include food stalls, live music, ticketed dinners, a night-time drone show and talks about astronomy. Queensland Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair Thursday 10 July to Sunday 13 JulyYou don't have to be in the market for a masterpiece to get something out of Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair – although with 600 visual artists participating, there will be plenty of options to buy art. The festival also features live music, food stalls, fashion, performances, talks and workshops. Much of the programming is free, while tickets to the opening night party and weekend performances are all $50 and under. Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Townsville Friday 25 July to Saturday 2 AugustFeaturing 20 ticketed concerts, including seven full-length evening performances at Townsville's Civic theatre, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music also has free programming all week on the Civic theatre's forecourt. Most tickets are priced between $40-$100, but under-30s can access $30 tickets for many shows. In addition to a broad repertory from baroque to contemporary classical, there are lectures paired with music on topics like the ageing brain and the connections between music and the natural world. BLEACH* Festival, Gold Coast Thursday 31 July to Sunday 10 AugustHeld at public art gallery Hota, what started as a surf festival has now expanded into a major contemporary arts event. This will be the first year visual artist Michael Zavros takes the helm as guest creative director. While the program is yet to be announced, you can expect free and ticketed shows and exhibitions, including some by international artists, accompanied by an extensive food and drink offering. Victoria Island Whale festival, Phillip IslandFriday 11 July to Sunday 13 JulyWould-be marine biologists of all ages can get their cetacean fix on shore at this festival, which features educational exhibits, talks from researchers, film screenings and of course the chance to watch passing humpback and southern right whales. The event's full program is yet to be announced, but weekend-long entry to the main festival hub is $30 for a family of four. If you're really lucky, you may even spot an orca during your visit. New South Wales Byron writers festivalFriday 8 August to Sunday 10 AugustA writers festival that's structured like a music festival; instead of buying tickets to individual events, you buy day or weekend passes that give you access to all the talks. This lets you take a punt on authors you might not be familiar with, or hop from talk to talk. This year's program is still to be announced, but last year's event featured Irish writer Caoilinn Hughes, Richard Flanagan, Bob Brown and the launch of Rebecca Huntley's memoir Sassafras. Northern Territory Country to Couture and Darwin Aboriginal Art fairTuesday 5 August and Thursday 7 August to Sunday 10 August The Northern Territory's massive showcase of First Nations creativity kicks off with a runway show like no other, Country to Couture, where art centres, designers and creatives come together from across Australia to stage a catwalk that features song, dance and one-off pieces of wearable art. This is followed by an art fair featuring works from more than 70 art centres, held in the Darwin Convention Centre. The event also takes in the National Indigenous Fashion Awards, and includes talks, demonstrations and kid-friendly activities. The fashion portions of the event are ticketed, but Daaf is free to attend. Queensland Moreton Bay Food + Wine festivalFriday 22 August to Sunday 24 AugustFor three days, the waterfront at Woody Point will transform into a sprawling outdoor market with food and drink from some of the region's best restaurants and bars. Visitors can expect demonstrations and talks by well known chefs, headlined by Ready Steady Cook's Miguel Maestre, plus live music and degustation dinners. Tickets for this year's festival go on sale in May, and it is worth planning ahead as two of the event's three-day run sold out in 2024. Tasmania Beaker Street, HobartTuesday 12 August to Tuesday 19 AugustMixing science and art, Beaker Street features talks, performances, markets and hands-on demonstrations. Previous years have included pop-up Finnish sauna tents, talks by Tim Flannery, Phillip Adams and the team from podcast Science Vs, and a stage show about menopause. The festival mixes free and ticketed events, with the annual highlight a selection of field trips that explore the nature surrounding Hobart, from glow worm caves to platypus walks. Victoria Winter Sounds, DaylesfordThursday 14 August to Monday 18 AugustThe producers behind Riverboats Music festival (which was headlined by the Cruel Sea and Dan Sultan last year) will take over small venues across Daylesford and surrounds – from churches to country to halls to a vintage train – for a series of intimate concerts at this new festival. The lineup will be announced in June.
The Guardian
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘We love involving everyone': these married artists want you to work on their giant cardboard sculpture
Using cardboard, make habitation a better place. Draw a tree of your imagination or that you can see. Have fun and clean up. These are some of the instructions you will be invited to follow if you visit Bundanon Art Museum on the New South Wales south coast in the coming months. Should you accept, you will become part of a new large-scale installation by Filipino-born husband-and-wife artist duo Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan that explores the tree as a symbol of home and community. 'We really love involving everyone in the actual process of making work,' Isabel says. 'It demystifies the idea of art as an individual pursuit.' The Aquilizans' Reflections/Habitations is part of Bundanon's group exhibition Thinking Together: Exchanges with the Natural World, and consists of two parts: a wall of drawings, and a large-scale 'accumulative' sculpture of a toppled tree, made from a grid of timber beams covered in small cardboard sculptures. Visitors are invited to create their own sculptures and drawings in the adjacent gallery to be added to the installation over the course of the exhibition. 'It's such a generous offer they make,' says Sophie O'Brien, Bundanon's head of curatorial and learning, 'which is: 'We'll make this work together'.' By welcoming audiences to co-create, the Aquilizans also hope to prompt reflection: how do trees – fallen or living – provide homes for humans and non-humans? How are deforestation and overdevelopment connected? And, what does it mean to create a 'home'? This final question is one that the Aquilizans have been asking themselves and their audiences since 2006, when they moved to Australia with their five children. From that point onwards, home has 'always been a recurring narrative in our work', says Isabel – 'because we are migrants', Alfredo adds. They joke, in their characteristically warm and self-deprecating manner, that they now have three citizenships – as Filipinos, Australians and senior citizens. One of the Aquilizans' first explorations of 'home' was at the 2006 Biennale of Sydney, which coincided with their move. 'We always try to share our story depending on what is happening, our art and our life have never been separate,' Isabel says. Their biennale installation, Project Be-longing: In Transit, documented their relocation to Australia via 12 neat stacks of personal items, each perfect cube creating the illusion that the cardboard of a packing box had vanished to reveal its contents. Referencing the Filipino migrant tradition of sending balikbayan (returning home) boxes of items to family members, it was a deeply personal portrait of a home in flux. Many of the Aquilizans' works similarly draw on everyday objects, including thongs, bed sheets and sickles. However, it is their large-scale cardboard sculptures built with community participation (like the one at Bundanon) for which they have become most well-known. They trace their interest in co-creating to their roots in south-east Asia, where sharing and helping each other is part of everyday life, as well as to their five children, who were involved with their parents' artworks from an early age. This has continued into adulthood, with the family now working as 'a kind of collective', Isabel says. Over the past two decades the Aquilizans have built iterations of their striking ephemeral sculptures with a huge number of communities on almost every continent, at major institutions such as the Art Gallery of NSW, Groninger Museum in the Netherlands and Museum MACAN in Indonesia, as well as community spaces. Perhaps their most significant co-made cardboard work is In-Habit: Project Another Country, a multi-year travelling sculpture that began in 2010. As it has toured and been rebuilt and added to by different audiences – first in Australia then Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and many other countries – it embodies its themes of change, displacement and settlement. Reflections/Habitations is similar in approach to their previous sculptures but reflects an expansion of their ideas around home to include nature, specifically trees and canopies. 'This exhibition is asking everyone to reflect not just within, but also especially what's happening around us,' Alfredo says. It feels fitting that the Aquilizans are exploring what 'home' means in Bundanon, the former home of prominent husband-and-wife arts figures Arthur and Yvonne Boyd. The Boyds saw their home as somewhere they could foster a creative community, protect the environment and leave a lasting legacy for Australian culture. 'They knew from the very beginning they were going to give it away,' O'Brien says. 'Arthur spent years churning out paintings, to be able to afford to pay it off and gift it [to the Australian government, in 1993]. It was a real social project.' When I ask the Aquilizans' question back to them – 'What does home mean to you?'– they speak of their decision to move back to the Philippines in 2024. 'We feel we have more to contribute by being there,' they say. 'We have political issues, economic problems and so on – at the end of the day, you cannot just rely on the system. You have to find alternative ways to do things.' To this end, they are currently building a new collective workspace, studio and home that will support local artisans and preserve endangered craft skills through art projects and international collaborations. Like the Boyds, the Aquilizans recognise the power of the art market to support their endeavour. While they have historically made non-commercial works, they are increasingly collaborating with local metalsmiths, artisans and re-skilled farmers as well as their gallery, Ames Yavuz, to create collectible pieces, often drawing from their co-created sculptures for details and inspiration. So: should you contribute to their sculpture in Bundanon, a little part of your work may live beyond the exhibition –helping to create a generously expanded notion of who and what art is for, and what a home can be. Reflections/Habitations is part of the exhibition Thinking Together: Exchanges with the Natural World, on until 8 June at Bundanon Art Museum, Shoalhaven
