Vision Australia Radio is proud to announce it will be a media partner to Perth Festival 2020. Over the last 18 months Vision Australia Radio has gotten behind a range of diverse and inclusive events including, but not limited to, Melbourne Writers Festival, Kyd X Disability Expo Adelaide, The Australian Open (Tennis), Australian Podcasting Awards in Sydney and the Disability Sports & Recreation Festival in Melbourne.
"We are very pleased to be a supporting partner to this year’s festival," Vision Australia national audio business development consultant Jason Gipps said.
"People head to the festival from across the state of WA and across the country each year to enjoy a diverse and inclusive line up where the community comes together as one to enjoy arts and culture that inspires, challenges and celebrates our people," Jason said.
"We will be focusing our attention on promoting the large range of accessible events and spaces, interviewing festival organisers on our radio programs and Vision Australia will provide advice to the organisers in how to best support the needs of the blind community and those who have low vision."
More than 250 events across theatre, music, dance, opera, film, visual arts and literature and ideas – many of them free – will dazzle audiences from near and far from 7 February to 1 March. With names such as Mavis Staples, Neil Gaiman, Meow Meow, Rufus Wainwright, Kate Tempest, Bryony Kimmings, Paul Kelly, Garrick Ohlsson, Michael Keegan-Dolan, the festival's 2020 Festival artists are as wondrous as its 14 brand-new Festival commissions, celebrating such diverse figures as Gurrumul, Philip Glass, Beethoven and Bon Scott.
Beginning with the Festival theme of Karla – a Noongar term meaning fire and by extension country and home – new artistic director Iain Grandage’s four annual programs on Noongar Boodjar will capture an ever‐expanding orbit of stories from the local to the global.
“Perth Festival 2020 will be a huge, euphoric celebration of Perth, Western Australia – it’s my home town and I love it,” Iain said.
“We introduce a sparkling new Festival hub, City of Lights including our new contemporary music venue Chevron Lighthouse, welcome the return of the much-loved Chamber Music Weekend and premiere exciting new works made especially for you by talented local artists working with artists from across the country and around the world,” he said.
“Our Festival is a campfire for sharing stories and inviting belonging,” Grandage says. “In celebrating place, and the depth and range of Australian indigenous culture, our entire first week is dedicated to First Nations performances.
“This is a first for any major Australian international arts festival and a celebration of Australia’s unique voice in the world.”
In a landmark event, Perth’s Yirra Yaakin Theatre presents the world’s first Noongar-language play, Hecate, an adaptation of Macbeth by writer-director and Perth Festival Associate Artist Kylie Bracknell (Kaarljilba Kaardn).
Other 2020 highlights include Bangarra Dance Theatre’s ravishingly beautiful Bennelong, the Yolŋu cultural spectacular Buŋgul, Circa’s renowned ensemble joining 18 local performers in the world-premiere circus event Leviathan and the Australian-exclusive international hits Tao of Glass, by Philip Glass and Phelim McDermott, and MÁM, Michael Keegan-Dolan’s follow-up to his 2019 Perth Festival smash Swan Lake.
And Karla’s closing flames flicker into the sunset south of the river as we reclaim 10km of Canning Highway for our massive free Festival finale Highway to Hell to celebrate Perth’s connection to legendary rocker Bon Scott on March 1 over the Labour Day long weekend.
Keep listening to Vision Australia Radio for more festival updates and of course head to varadio.org regularly to read more. We thank the Perth Festival and organisers of the event for including us in this year’s wonderful line up.
