The 2011 Cairns Festival was the region’s most ambitious arts and cultural event program ever attempted—more than 100 unique productions over 17 days, and thousands of creative participants all coming together in Far North Queensland. Now that the dust has settled, we need your input, suggestions, and continuous improvement ideas to help us plan the 2012 Cairns Festival: 17 August to 2 September. To share your feedback about the 50th Cairns Festival, please click the below link and complete our five minute survey. Your input will help guide our efforts to continuously improve the Cairns Festival and all the creative elements that we offer to the community.
Click here to share your thoughts and take the 2011 Cairns Festival Survey!
After 17 days of entertainment, events and good old-fashioned fun in the sun, Cairns Festival 2011 successfully completed the region’s most ambitious arts program ever attempted last night and helped confirm Cairns as the "Creative Capital of Regional Australia". Cairns Festival producer, Eric Holowacz said the closing Sunday rain didn’t dampen spirits at all: “After two fantastic weeks, there was too much goodwill for cloudy weather to spoil our finale party and the rollicking closing set by Tijuana Cartel at Fogarty Park.” Thousands of creative people came together under a tropical sun, and helped the Festival pull off the largets, most diverse, most ambitious season ever attempted in Far North Queensland. And we are ever so grateful! Plans are already being made for the 2012 Cairns Festival, which will be held from 17 August to 2 September. Click here to read some facts and figures about the 50th Cairns Festival season...
Answering that question is the driving force behind the Cairns Festival team. Ever searching for ways to go from good to great, Producer Eric Holowacz, Administrator Nina Bryony Adwick, and the Festival Team keep asking a few simple questions: what do we as a unique community want Cairns Festival to become over the next few years? How can our program shine as something unique in the world? What can we do to engage people, add value and meaning to their lives, and support new and ambitious creative platforms. There are dozens of annual festivals all over Australia, and many of them stick to the same event-based formula. There's nothing wrong with tried and true ticketed programming, but Cairns Regional Council and its small Festival Team think we can do more as a creative place unlike any other in the world. Read more at this link...
A curious population of Woodfordian Gremlins arrived by ocean raft at the start of the Festival. In August and September, groups of Gremlin folk were been spotted all over Cairns, and a makeshift base camp was been set up on The Esplanade. What appeared to be a terrestrial rover was seen exploring the Far North in search of parts and the perfect launch site. Ethnographers from James Cook University continue to try and decipher the Gremlin language, and backpackers at Gilligan's were noted adopting the Gremlin ritual known as the throwing of the potato. And then, on September 4, the Gremlin population disappeared from Far North Queensland. What did it all mean? Have they find their way into space, or back to their rustic base camp at Woodfordia? To find out what became of the Gremlin Far North adventure, and where they are now, you'll have to click here!
Man vs Fascinator, a new collaborative socio-photographic project begun to take shape a few months ago—and the results are now on view at the Circa 1907 Gallery in City Place. For this year's Festival season, acclaimed photographer Jake Nowakowski worked with the Cairns Festival team to set up mobile portrait studios and shoot the Man vs Fascinator images using local men as his subject. The Festival realizes that the Fascinator, a type of fanciful head-dress worn at social functions throughout Australia, is an important aspect of the Queensland woman's wardrobe (especially when equestrian activities or nuptials are happening nearby). This small, often feathered object is a staple of race-going and party-making, and it appears at key events during the year.
The Man vs Fascinator project started by asking local women to dig deep into their wardrobe and select one or two of their favourite Fascinators. Then, in a bold attempt at male-female social experimentation, they presented it to their partner, convinced him to try it on, and then sat before Jake's careful lens. Click here to read more and find out what happened next as man and fascinator collide...
The 2011 Cairns Festival printed program tells quite a story of creativity in the tropics, sense of place in Far North Queensland, and a half century of celebration! Click on the below image to open and view our complete 68-page Festival Guide and take a look back at the hundreds of experiences on offer as part of the 2011 Festival. Learn about Muddy's Art Village, Australia's first Art-o-mat machine, a La Mama Theatre's premiere, Far North Murder Ballads, our expanded free film series, The Grimstones, and the augmented reality of (Un)seen Sculptures. Explore what Cairns Indigenous Art Fair and UMI Arts had to offer, delve into the Arthouse Roadshows that came into their own this past season, and look back on Op Shop Tours, new choreography by DanceNorth, and Claire Marshall's SlowDive at The Attic. Catch The Panics and Jeff Lang at Tanks Arts Centre and Circus Oz at the Civic Theatre. Thanks to everyone who made the 2011 season a true celebration of 50 years under a tropical sun. Just wait to see what we have in store for the 51st Cairns Festival: 17 August to 2 September 2012!
With a special nod to the Far North's half century milestone, click here to listen to a spectacular soon-to-be released track from our August 21 post-parade headliners, The Medics. "50 Years" is filled with a sweeping sense of nostalgia and cautious thoughts of the future. Cairns Festival, in partnership with the band, is pleased to offer you this splendid example of home-grown music-making—have a listen, and spend the next few minutes in the company of 50 Years. The band's homecoming concert, proudly presented by Cairns Festival on Sunday 21 August, was a great tropical North event, and had everybody asking What will become of us in fifty years?
Since late 2010, local cultural producers have been gathering for lunch and conversation. About 40 cultural producers now come together as part of the informal Arts Leaders Lunches, developed by Festival Producer Eric Holowacz and his team. Why? Because we think that valuable networking and idea exchange can happen, in an unprogrammed way, by sharing a meal and some Far North hospitality. It's amazing what can transpire in 90 minutes, around a table and good food, as conversations turn to all sorts of projects and partnerships. The Arts Leaders Lunches are now brought to you by the Festival, Council's Creative Partnerships Team, and Arts Nexus—and the next one will be held in October. We invite artists, organization directors, and independent producers to join us and be part of the casual dialogue.
Over 200 arts supporters took to the stage of the Civic Theatre as Cairns Festival announced its ambitious 2011 season. The Far North is coming together in Cairns—and is inviting the world to join us, 19 August to 4 September, to celebrate 50 years under a tropical sun. Mayor Val Schier welcomed the crowd and officially launched the Festival Festival program on Thursday 14 July at the Civic Theatre. Producer Eric Holowacz served up a detailed overview of all that's in store, including innovative creative projects and over 100 unique events. Far Northern Soul Collective kept things groovy from the prompt corner, and the Festival's Soul Song Jubilee Choir made a surprise debut as voices emerged from the crowd. Posters to the People were grabbed up by eager art lovers. And to top it all off, 1964 Fun in the Sun parade queen Kay Hilder gave a regal wave before cutting the Festival's special anniversary cake for several hundred Festival supporters. Details about the 2011 Cairns Festival events can now be found by clicking the date or program links at the top of this website. The Cairns Festival's complete printed guide will hit the streets in early August and be available at event venues, local cafes, visitor centers, and other outlets.
Click here to View Images from the 2011 Cairns Festival Launch Event
Click here to Open and Read a Detailed Summary of the Upcoming 50th Season
Click here to Watch a Slide Show about the 2011 Festival Program
The Cairns Festival is part of the Cairns Regional Council's Cultural Services & Facilities Branch. Our 50th season has been made possible by generous Anniversary Partners: James Cook University, Overflow FNQ, and BDO. Our major sponsors and program partners are Michael Aw The Good Guy, TicketLink, Cairns Penny Savings and Loans, McDonald’s Family Restaurants, Fosters Group, Tourism Tropical North Queensland, Cairns Airport, Rydges Hotels, Sebel Cairns, Paronella Park, Go Transit, Gilligan’s Backpacker Resort & The Attic, Salt House Restaurant, Cairns Courthouse Hotel, Cairns Hardware, and The Pier.
Cairns Festival wants you to grow in new and creative ways! To prepare the community for a fantastic Overflow FNQ Grand Parade, we offered dozens of free art-filled workshops throughout July and August. They explored a wide range of creative participation and development opportunities, from making funky noisemakers and joining our ukulele marching brigade, to banging on the Trinidadian steel pans or African drums. The Festival had people turning recycled bits inot bold parade fish and constructing giant puppets that towered over the Eslanade. We are grateful to all the instructors, creative people, and members of the community who joined in and helped us make the best parade ever! Click here to learn more about the Festival's August pre-parade workshops and creative sessions.
From August 19 to September 4, the streets, parks, and venues of Cairns will be filled with creativity and Festival activities. Our milestone season, 50 Years Under a Tropical Sun, will offer hundreds of great events over 17-days, including a healthy offering of free events and experiences. The main stage in Fogarty Park comes alive on Friday 19 August when the new Cairns Gondwana Indigenous Children's Choir takes the stage, joined by Will Kepa and friends, and then the legendary Torres Strait Islander, Seaman Dan. The free concert series continues on Saturday 20 August when UMI Arts presents its Big Talk One Fire program, as Zennith and Black Image take the stage for a double bill or pure local talent.
Deadly Award-winners, The Medics return home to the Far North to headline the Sunday 21 August concert, following the Festival's Grand Parade and Fireworks Show. Hundreds of cultural events will follow over the 17 day season, which includes a world premiere of a multi-media environmental work by Melbourne's La Mama Theatre, a friendly invasion and street theatre environment by Woodford Festival's Gremlins, a five-day season of Circus Oz at the Civic Theatre, an expanded free outdoor film series, Jake Nowakowski's Man vs Fascinator exhibition, and more. Puppetry artist Asphyxia brings The Grimstones: Mortimer Revealed to Cairns. Fleur Elise Noble installs her multi-media story, The 2 Dimensional Life of Her, for our Contemporary Performance Series. Musical collaboration, Murder Ballads, heads North from Brisbane to explore the macabre in the Far North. And augmented reality curator, Warren Armstrong, brings (Un)seen Sculptures to the Cairns Esplanade and CBD. Click here for an advance look at the 2011 Cairns Festival...
The call is out for far northerners to join this year’s historic Cairns Festival Grand Parade—which rolls through the Esplanade on Sunday 21 August. Her Royal Fun in the Sunniness, Kay Hilder, has agreed to wear the very same crown she earned at the 1964 Festival, and lead the retinue down the Esplanade. We're calling for individuals, groups, businesses, and creative teams to join her—and help us celebrate 50 years of creative community fun under a tropical sun. This year's theme is "The Far North Time Machine," and parade participants are encouraged to take a nostalgic look back or a visionary look forward. Click here for more parade planning information and learn how to become part of the Far North's biggest street party! Click here to go directly to our Grand Parade expression of interest form, and sign on now! Artists, schools, businesses and community groups wanting to participate in the 2011 Cairns Festival Grand Parade should contact Parade Coordinator, Heather Rutter, at the Cairns Festival or click here to express interest by email.
Cairns Festival has begun planning a peaceful invasion of curious characters originating in the South. Woodford Folk Festival, that legendary creative force in Australian culture, begins a new partnership with the Far North when its resident street theatre population, the Gremlins, washes ashore during the 2011 Festival season. While here, Woodfordia's Gremlins will explore our shops and neighbourhoods, intrigue pedestrians, learn more about the laws of gravity, and become part of the fabric of our North Queensland community. According to Festival Producer Eric Holowacz, who began the partnership following hie own 2010 Woodford Festival experience, the Gremlins will explore the Far North—just like any other visitor—and then attempt to blast off into the sky as the 2011 Cairns Festival season comes to a close. For the recent history of the Gremlin families bound for Cairns, click here to read of their recent travels from the hills of Woodfordia to the Coral Sea, and learn more about the Gremlin culture.
Click here to learn how you can become a Far North Gremlin for the Festival season!
A main presence at the 2010/11 Woodford Festival, the Gremlin characters and culture were developed last year by the aptly-named Woodfordian Institute of Street Performance, under the guidance of producers Alex Podger and Jenna Koda, and legendary theatre figure Hayden Spencer. Their team will come to Cairns in early August to lead acting, clowning, and street performance workshops for local performers—and help train a local population of Gremlins for Cairns Festival. Expressions of interest are now being taken from those wanting to participate and learn the ways of Gremlinia. Far North Gremlin workshops will require a minimal fee, and participants are expected to develop and inhabit a Gremlin character for the Festival season. Click here to request more information about becoming involved in the Cairns Festival's Gremlin Project. Or better yet, click here to go directly to the Gremlin Audition online registration form!
Click here to read the Fascinating Story of the Far North Gremlin Visitors
"They left the Brisbane hinterlands on a simple raft, floated out to sea, and have been drifting the ocean currents ever since," explains Podger, who likens the Gremlins to any other visitors to the Cairns Region, albeit with green skin, tiny horns, wild hair, and seriously tattered garments. He hinted at their special mission, curious and crafty disposition, and interest in physics and gravity. "While based in the Cairns Region, the Gremlin population will research and discover what makes life in the Far North so special, assimilating with the natives, investigating social situations, attending Council committee meetings, and continuing their plans to escape earth's atmosphere." Podger also mentioned that the Gremlins like bananas, and possess something called a Gleeb Solarisation Chamber, which might hold the key to humanity's future. The Gremlin population is expected to make landfall at the Cairns Espanade by the start of the Festival season, where they will set up a tropical encampment and undertake various studies and experiments with the help of native guides. "Their main focus, of course, proceeding from the Gremlin mission at Woodford, is to blast off into the heavens and become our galactic ambassadors to the cosmos, but that is all that can be told at this time."
Arts organizations banded together to offer a special Festival Creative Crawl on Wednesday 17 August—as the perfect kick off the season. The Crawl included a series of self-guided after-work excursions, featuring free live music, dining deals, new exhibitions, street performers, talks, tapas, and more. Stops included Circa 1907 Gallery, Tanks Arts Centre, Cell Art Space, Orchid Plaza's new Beautiful Arts Spaces, and Festival HQ in City Place. Special Creative Crawl deals were also on offer at Havana Music Cafe, 12 Bar Cafe, and other creative businesses. Click here to read about all the creative Poker Run and all the stops on our August 17 Creative Crawl. And look for the next Cairns Creative Crawl to be announced in October!
Cairns Festival is inspired by Melbourne's La Mama Theatre, one of Australia's most productive sources of new stage plays and story-telling. So much so that a few months ago, we began talking about sharing theatre works and exchanging creative people, and developing new plays together. The first step is an exploration of environmental issues, young people in theatre, and how civic leaders can become involved in the dialogue about climate change. We've begun planning a series of workshops for Far North creative people, leading up to the 2011 Festival, and hope to premiere their work alongside a La Mama play currently in development down South. It's exciting stuff, and another sign of an ambitious Cairns Festival ahead. Click here to listen to an ABC Far North interview with Pippa and Mel Bainbridge, who discuss climate change, theatre development, and this new partnership between La Mama Theatre and Cairns Festival.
Festival Gremlins announced! Artist residencies abroad! Public art commissions! Exhibition openings at Cairns Regional Gallery, Circa 1907, and Cell Art Space. Grants and funding ideas! Cairns Artful-e is the frequently published email newsletter for artists, producers, and creative people here in the Far North and beyond. And the latest edition, coming to your in-box soon, has all that and more. Cairns Festival producer Eric Holowacz compiles the electronic missive, which now goes to over 700 artists, cultural figures, and civic leaders from Cape York to Hobart. Click here to read the latest edition of Cairns Artful-e, and send us an email by clicking here if you'd like to be added to the list. Events, ideas, and future content always welcome...
Plans are now underway for the 2011 Cairns Festival: 50 Years Under the Tropical Sun, which will be held from 19 August to 4 September. The 17-day season will encompass nearly 100 unique events, including major cornerstones such as Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, Tropical Pride Festival, UMI Arts Big Talk One Fire, Carnival on Collins, and Cairns Amateurs. At Festival venues like the Centre of Contemporary Arts, Tanks Arts Centre, Cairns Civic Theatre, and Cairns Esplanade, we'll explore the Far North's sense of place, our connections to the Pacific Rim, and some new creative links between Australia's North and South. It all begins with the Gordonvale Pyramid Race and Carnival, and the community-wide Grand Parade, spectacular fireworks, and free concerts on the Esplanade.
The 2011 Festival Team has begun to come together, and includes producer and impresario Eric Holowacz, administrator Nina Adwick, publicist Pip Miller, designer Ray Clark, sponsorship officer Jacqui Nolan, parade coordinator Heather Rutter, and official photographer Colyn Huber. Also joining the team are Roz Pappalardo as music program coordinator, Velvet Eldred as program assistant, and Mema Edwards as development and grants officer. Look for them at the Festival HQ in City Place, and running all over town in preparation for an ambitious 2011 season. If you would like to schedule a meeting with our producer or team, contact the Cairns Festival office on 4044 3594 or send an email by clicking here. Details on the 2011 season will be announced in early July.
Thanks to Cairns Festival, North Queensland just became home to the first Art-o-mat in the Southern Hemisphere. Our special art vending machine arrived during the final week of the Festival, and will soon be relaunched in the KickArts gift shop. There people from throughout Australia can visit the Aussie Art-o-mat, hand over a $5 note, get a token, and pull one of twenty knobs on the singular art-dispensing machine. After a brief pause, and then a kerplunk, an original hand-made work of art or neatly packaged craft object will appear in the Art-o-mat's bottom tray. There's no easier way to collect original art from around the world, and now Cairns has the first Art-o-mat in Australia! In partnership wiht KickArts Contemproary Arts we'll be inviting Queensland artists to make their own diminutive works, and enter the Art-o-mat global network. Click on the image below to see other photos form the first week of Art-o-mat fun. And click here to read more...
The 2011 Cairns Festival celebrates 50 years under a tropical sun. Join us in Far North Queensland. Our season runs from Friday, 19 August to Sunday, 4 September and includes over 100 unique creative activities and cultural events. The Festival is part of the Cairns Regional Council's Cultural Programs & Services Branch, and the upcoming season has been made possible by Anniversary Partners—James Cook University, Overflow FNQ, and BDO—and our generous 2011 major sponsors.