Melbourne Festival 2014 Program Announced

The Melbourne Festival program has been released, and as you can imagine, it is jam-packed with world class music, dance, theatre, film, visual art and forums. It is Melbourne’s flagship cultural event, and with good reason. Some of the artists featured are on the rise and pushing boundaries, where others are well-renowned, established organisations that are bringing their award winning pieces to this great city.

One thing Melbourne Festival loves to do is to collaborate, collide and blur the lines between art forms. This year we will see legendary Detroit techno producer and DJ Jeff Mills work with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for Light from the Outside World. Framed Movements, curated by Hannah Mathews, examines the shifting boundaries between art and dance, and Complexity of Belonging — a collaboration between Anouk van Dijk from Chunky Move and Berlin director Falk Richter — uses dance and acting to explore identity in the age of social media.

A strong point of difference for Melbourne Festival when comparing it to the plethora of arts events this city holds is it’s strong acknowledgement of the role of circus in Melbourne’s art scene. Opus from France and Cirkopolis from Canada both look spectacular and provide a rare opportunity for an Australian audience to see the tricks of pioneers in their field, while The Nanjing Project is a collaborative work between Australian and Chinese circus performers.

If it’s music you’re after from this year’s program, we imagine you will be spending a fair amount of time at the Foxtel Festival Hub. We are particularly excited about Since I Left You, where musicians Jonti and Rainbow Chan will rearrange and reinterpret the Avalanches seminal record — and its 3,500 vinyl samples — via live performance. Or you may be drawn to Pop Crimes, a celebration of Roland S. Howard’s songs, with many musical guests performing on what would have been his 55th birthday. If you’re more interested in shaking your groove thing, head to The Bamboos' performance during the middle weekend.

If you haven’t had your film fix from Melbourne International Film Festival this year, ex-MIFF director Richard Moore will be curating films for Art Politics and Protest. While we’re on the subject of film, Clint Mansell — renowned for his eerie and expansive soundscapes in Darren Aronofsky films — will be performing a retrospective of his film scores with a nine-piece band (and accompanied by haunting visuals, of course).

Theatre is going to be high on the agenda this year as well. Revered master of stagecraft Heiner Goebbels will bring 40 Slovenian teenagers to town for his lauded 2012 work, When the Mountain Changed Its Clothing, while Hipbone Sticking Out and Hello, Goodbye & Happy Birthday are two Australian productions to consider. For dance, we can’t go past Trisha Brown Dance Company from the USA performing 18 of her brilliant postmodern dances. Our art pick for the festival at this stage is Carsten Höller’s Golden Mirror Carousel, partially because it looks awesome, and partly because you can ride it.

Like last year, the festival will begin with Tanderrum: a powerful event of story, song and dace, where elders from the five clans of the Kulin nation invite the people of Melbourne to celebrate the ancestors who were here long before our time. The Ilbijerri Theatre Company will facilitate the event, and it is a proud symbol of the resilience of Melbourne’s Koori culture, and statement of optimism for the future.

We could easily go on, but we’ll stop there for now. Melbourne Festival is on from October 10-26. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Tuesday, July 29. Head to the festival website for all the details.