DUE WEST: Immersive Arts Festival first program announced
Published on 12 July 2017
Melbourne’s west is set to host a new arts festival from 10 – 27 August which will showcase experiential art to envelope and transform audiences.
The aptly named Due West: Immersive Arts Festival, will invite art-lovers, culture-vultures and all in between, to uncover art in the west through performances, workshops, exhibitions and installations by local creatives, organisations and venues.
An immersive experience, the program focuses on works which encourage festival-goers to participate, engage and interact with art across multi art-forms; often in unexpected locations.
Aimed at showcasing the bustling arts community in Melbourne’s inner west, the new Festival is a partnership between City of Maribyrnong and the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.
The Festival will kick off with a jam-packed opening weekend featuring a triple- bill music celebration at Footscray Community Arts Centre.
Due West will see the likes of local theatre company, wit incorporated, transport its audience into a 1930s Berlin Kabarett in ‘A Scandal in the Weimar’, complete with post-performance speakeasy and code-word entry; intimate guerrilla opera cruises by BK Opera will float along the Maribyrnong River with a series of live music events.
A special West Projections project ‘The Right Side of the Tracks’, will feature projections and street talks in a Footscray-based residential street and a much-anticipated performance at the iconic Franco Cozzo furniture store.
Local artists, the indirect Object, will transform a family home on Moore Street, Footscray into an immersive exhibition and powerful dreamscape of sounds and vibrations; while renowned trumpeter and composer Peter Knight will deliver a Way Out West in Braybrook.
“The City of Maribyrnong is home to a rich, diverse and thriving arts community and it our pleasure to be able to provide this community with a new platform to showcase their talents to a wide and appreciative audience,” said City of Maribyrnong Mayor Catherine Cumming.
“We thank the Victorian Government for its support for this exciting arts festival, which we hope will grow to become a permanent fixture on our annual Festival City calendar.”
Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley said: "Victoria’s reputation as the creative state is built on the grassroots creativity of our communities – Due West celebrates this and invites people from all walks of life to experience and enjoy it. The Victorian Government is proud to support this inaugural event, and we look forward to seeing it come to life.
Festival Creative Director, Zoe Beyer, said Due West’s vision is to encourage exploration of the west.
“We’ve worked closely with the local arts community to develop a program which is indicative of the vast talent in west,” Beyer said.
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