The Village Festival
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The 12th annual Village Festival is back at North Fitzroy's Edinburgh Gardens from Friday 27th October to Sunday 29th October 2017! Come along with the whole family and join the Village family for the most intriguing festival event in Melbourne!
This year's extravaganza is set to be three days and three nights of creativity, curiosity and craziness in one of the city's most iconic urban parks!
Part old-school circus, part village carnival, and part edgy arts festival, The Village Festival features an exciting line-up of 250 performance artists, musicians, bands and artisans. There is sure to be surprises around every corner with entertainment aplenty and unforgettable moments for the whole family!
Artists of all dimensions will gather with the community to share their experiences, to reflect their creative capacity and deepen their understanding – all through performance, visual art, music, food and culture.
Entering through the intricate gateway façade, audiences will discover an alternative utopian environment, where experimentation is the norm. Edinburgh Gardens will be transformed with caravans and containers workshopping the ideas of the future, while the colourful tents will house a groundswell of youthful exuberance and expression.
2017 highlights include the Maze of Motions, a collaborative work in development between students from Macedon and Fitzroy North. Performance maker Zak Pidd and musician Adam Simmons, mentor a posse of young artists, will generate a multi-modal art installation that explores the dynamics and complexity of emotions in the modern era. Prepare to be surprised and delighted!
Festival-goers are also privy to preview new work by leading giant puppetry company, SnuffPuppets. The Garden of Sorrows is an adaptation of the illustrated book of fables by John Hughes and Marco Luccio, in which iconic Australian animals take on human qualities.
Melbourne's emerging and established musos will band together for the Main Stage Music program with 70s surf and psychedelia intermixed with Indo-grooves, New Orleans jazz, hip-hop and gypsy. Tune into Jawa Pitu Band, Masco Sound System, The Number Nineteens, Copperhead Brass Band, Hello Tut Tut, All Day Fritz, Blunderbus and SARAY Iluminado Femme.
The Village's performative food stage The World Kitchen returns with a vengeance after stops in Tennant Creek (NT), Canberra (ACT) and St. Kilda (south-side!) earlier this year. It's a downright fun way to demonstrate cooking! Be curious with each other over excellent food and keep your taste-buds tantalised with the kids' workshop, My Kitchen Sux with Emily Bloom, and the cross-cultural Every Bite Takes You Home.
As always, The Village encourages active participation and there will be many opportunities to get creative including The Wedding Factory, The Famous Village Dog Show, creative workshops and stalwarts like So You Think You Can Interpretive Dance and 10 Minute Dance Parties.
The Village is Australia's travelling arts festival. Since its last incarnation in Edinburgh Gardens, it has visited Lorne (VIC), Marion Bay (TAS), Gasworks Arts Park (VIC), Benalla (VIC), Tennant Creek (NT), St. Kilda (VIC) and Canberra (ACT). In 2016, it presented 270 artistic works (including developing 28 new works); provided professional opportunities for over 525 artists; worked with 12,000 active community collaborators, and engaged over 25,000 audience members!
"This has been an exceptional year for The Village Festival. We travel purposefully to connect artists and audiences wherever they roam. It is with pride we return to Edinburgh Gardens for our flagship event, sharing stories of these travels with our hometown folk", says Suzanne Kalk, The Village Festival Artistic Director. "Over the next year we expect to see some of the experimental work premiered in Edinburgh Gardens travel to Village Festivals across Australia."
Entry is by donation at the gate (all donations go to the artists and performers)
Session times are as follows:
For more information on what's on, please visit the website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
