Tiny Stadiums Festival 2013

Overview

Typically Newtown is the suburb praised as a hub of avant-garde and edgy goodness — the happenin' jewel in the inner west crown. However, Erskineville is carving out a solid cultural identity with the return of Tiny Stadiums Festival, presented by PACT Centre for Emerging Artists.

Back for its sixth year, this idiosyncratic ten-day festival has been a breath of fresh air for Sydney's performing arts scene. Over the festival period, the suburb will be transformed into a cross section of live art, with performers inundating every nook and cranny. From bars and rooftops through to gardens and shopfronts, there will be an overflow of artistic projects, expanding into the twilight hours for the first time in the festival’s history.

Tiny Stadiums is part of a handful of small-scale festivals that are sidestepping the rigid infrastructure and funding strains of big arts events. For the second year in a row, it will be curated by the collective Groundwork, who have shifted the focus to a distinctly community flavour. As well as challenging the way people navigate the heart and peripheries of the suburb, Groundwork's Maria White explains that the event is also “an opportunity to showcase the work of young and emerging artists working under the banner of visual arts, performance and installation”.

Oozing with quirk, PACT’s double bill is sure to set a strong tone, balancing the critical with the entertaining. From the inventive mind of writer and director Nick Coyle, Blue Wizard is a play revolving around the exploits of a gay intergalactic wizard. And Kenzie Larsen will be welcomed back, clutching at social interactions in her full-length piece called Friend Ship, a performance exploring the mechanics of making friends.

There will also be an assortment of unique and immersive hybrid art practices on show. For example, dance artist, Natalie Abbott’s collaboration with a body builder at the Imperial Hotel is a ‘bend and stretch’ initiative that will encourage you to engage with your inner diva. Also, Imogen Semmler will be working with vets, scientists and entrepreneurs in order to track the movements of Erko’s stealthiest felines and answer the age-old question, where do cats go when they leave the cat flap?

Expect to see some truly unusual spaces being put to use. "Hossein Ghaemi is serenading us from the rooftops of Erskineville village," says White. "This will be a Tiny Stadiums first. Ghaemi's singers will be dressed in his signature otherworldly style, their voices floating through the air at dusk.

Other artists are responding to Erskineville's unique geography and experiences. "Jen Hamilton and Craig Johnson are cheekily exploring the food politics of this increasingly gentrified area," says White. "Since Woolworths decided to simply name its new Erskineville supermarket erskineville earlier this year, Hamilton and Johnson have looked at notions of public space, privatisation, global supply chains and urban farms in order to tell a story about food and labour in the 21st century."

A new addition to the festival is Tiny forums, consisting of craft workshops and symposiums with Sydney’s leading curators and artists, who will be discussing the intersection of public spaces and community-based art. And to keep the fire burning, Albert Tucker Slow Coffee will be setting up shop in PACT’s leafy courtyard.

Filling the gap between the theatre and the street, Tiny Stadiums is quickly becoming an annual staple in Sydney’s arts program. It is a hyperlocal celebration of live art, aiming to reach both the intended audience and the coincidental passer-by.