‘Honestly, what I have enjoyed the most over these last nine months, being here in Darwin, is that everyone has a sense of ownership of the Festival. They love it,’ laughs Darwin Festival Artistic Director Kate Fell.
‘And so what I do is just ask people, “Well, what have been some of your favourite things that you’ve seen? What have you loved or what have you missed out on?” Just getting that direct feedback from people – and all sorts of people.
‘I mean, of course, it’s really important to talk to artists and the arts sector, but it’s also important to talk to a really broad section of the community,’ Fell explains.
Fell last spoke with ArtsHub in August 2022 shortly after her appointment was announced, in a joint conversation with outgoing AD Felix Preval, who has subsequently returned to Aotearoa/New Zealand to take up a role with Creative New Zealand. Fell, meanwhile, launched her debut Darwin Festival on Tuesday night (30 May).
She is understandably enthusiastic about the program, which plays to a number of her passions, including family-friendly work, physical work such as dance and circus, and broadly accessible outdoor productions.
Immediately noticeable in the 2023 program is the decision to expand the popular Festival Park precinct – a hub of free entertainment, diverse food and beverage options, and ticketed events, including live music – into a new space, Festival Lawn, on the NT Legislative Assembly building’s forecourt.
While doubtless necessitated by the withdrawal of funding from Santos, which previously supported the Festival’s free opening night event in the Botanic Gardens, the expanded Festival Park precinct also leans into one of Darwin Festival’s key strengths: popular outdoor events on balmy August nights.
‘What I’ve tried to do this year is a mix of that real festival buzz, where everyone’s together in a real hub of the festival, but also having moments of exploring some of these unique places and venues across Darwin,’ says Fell.
‘I love that some people’s festival experience is eating food and hearing live music [in Festival Park]; that to me is wonderful. They feel part of it and it captures what is unique about Darwin Festival, which is very much about the community coming together – and Festival Park really symbolises that.’
After a Welcome to Country acknowledging the Festival takes place on Larrakia land, the Opening Night features the world premiere of Life/Time, a collaboration between acclaimed Adelaide circus company Gravity & Other Myths, Corrugated Iron Youth Arts, Larrakia hip-hop artist Jimblah and local young people.
‘I love Gravity & Other Myths and when we talked about this show and this opportunity, they really embraced it. And so it will be our opening of the Festival and, really, it is going to be a unique collaboration between Gravity & Other Myths’ incredible acrobats, who will be performing alongside Corrugated Iron and also a whole group of young schoolchildren from one of the primary schools up here as well.
‘So for me, it’s what I’m trying to do here, which is create those moments of spectacle, of bringing amazing artists together, but also that connection locally, and Corrugated Iron Youth Arts are doing amazing work up here. They’ve built this great circus program and so to give those young people that opportunity will be really exciting too,’ Fells says.
Read: How international festivals enrich their local arts ecologies
Other highlights include two works by inventive Adelaide-based children’s company Patch Theatre, a strong comedy and contemporary music program, and numerous works that speak directly to Darwin and its people, including Amy Hetherington and Friends’ Secret Life of Territorians (billed as ‘a variety show filled with ordinary people you’ve seen around Darwin doing something out of the ordinary’), and popular podcast Spun with Unprecedented: True Tales Told in the Territory.
‘People are Territory proud, and they say that. And it’s true, you know, because you’re a long way from a lot of other parts of Australia up here – we’re much closer to Asia. People are proud of this place and it is a special place to live. So for me, infusing the Festival with creative locals is just so important.’
Equally important is Darwin Festival’s commitment to, and celebration of, First Peoples, reflected in a range of programming highlights, including the eagerly anticipated Telstra NATSIAA (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards) at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, as well as the annual Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, through to the world premiere of The Other Side of Me, a major new work from Gary Lang NT Dance Company developed in collaboration with the UK’s Northumbria University. The work tells the true story of a young Aboriginal man, born in 1966 in the Northern Territory, adopted by a white English family and raised in a remote hamlet in Cornwall.
‘I think Gary is incredible. His story – and I got to hear all these amazing stories of his life and all that he’s done at the recent Garrmalang Festival, which was just on up here – he’s just such a beautiful person and artist and [his company] is a really good example of some of the artists up here that may not necessarily be super well-known across the country.
‘So the Festival is a really great time for anyone in Australia to come to Darwin, so that you can experience both amazing NT artists that you may not know of, but also because – as someone described it to me and I think it’s right – that Darwin Festival becomes this beautiful curation of some fantastic shows that … you get to see all at once.’
The 2023 Darwin Festival runs from 10-27 August. Visit the website for full program details.
