Final Festival Weekend!
Our
final week offers an extraordinary handful of events: 1) Cairns Festival's
first-ever Playwright-in-Residence Dean Poynor, newly arrived from New York, unleashes his latest play Homo apocalyptus
in a world premiere run at The Attic (89 Grafton Street). 2) Fresh from its premiere at Darwin Festival, Alana
Valentine's touching play Head Full of Love offers a look at the human relationships that are formed and thrive at the Alice Springs Beanie Festival. Directed by Wesley Enoch and starring Colette Mann and Roxanne
McDonald, Head Full of Love will play at the Cairns Centre of
Contemporary Arts on 3, 4, and 5 September and tickets are available by clicking here. 3) The Amazing Drumming Monkeys bring their beat to the Esplanade, for two shows a day, and two Sunday shows at Carnival on Collins. 4) The first Art-o-mat machine arrives in the Southern Hemisphere, and lands in Cairns to dispense affordable original art for all. 5) Local musicians fill the Esplanade and City Place for Cooked in Cairns. 6) The Esplanart exhibition remains on view along the Esplanade (with two free Esplanart children's workshops at Cairns Regional Gallery this Saturday, and then 7) Sunday closes this wonderful festival with Carnival on Collins. Get out there and enjoy the offerings. Cairns Festival is all around you!
looking at the festival
Festival photographer Colyn Huber has been running from event to event, helping us capture the energy and excitement of the opening weekend. Many of the images on our website are courtesy of Colyn and his expert eye. Click here for a look at a dozen or so images he shot from the opening weekend of Cairns Festival 2010. And be Sure to Check Out the Today's Events column at lower right for a summary of all the great Cairns Festival opportunities happening around us, or click on any calendar date above for a day to day look at events and performances! Click here to see what's on at Cairns Festival for Saturday 4 September!
cairns now home to first art-o-mat in southern hemisphere
Thanks to Cairns Festival, North Queensland just become home to the first Art-o-mat
in the Southern Hemisphere. Our special art vending machine arrived on Tuesday, and now people from throughout Australia can visit us at the Festival
Headquarters in City Place, 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! Click on the image below to see other photos form the first week of Art-o-mat fun. And click here to read more...
pianos & Buskers hit the streets of cairns
Keys to the City, your opportunity for spontaneous keyboard action
from Salt House Restaurant to City Place, has hit the streets for
Festival time. Six familiar locations in the CBD have been made better
by the simple addition of an upright piano, wonderfully painted with a
new skin and tuned to A440 as closely as possible. Dust off that Gilbert
& Sullivan score, reacquaint yourself with those Brahms Etudes, and
tell Tchaikovsky the news. Click here to read more, including a list of locations in Cairns
where you can now take a seat and tickle the ivories. And in possibly
related news the upcoming (22 - 26 September) Cairns Buskers Festival
has unleashed its Street Star Busking Competition during Cairns
Festival, so expect guitars, ukuleles, fire jugglers, magic tricks,
unbridled poets, and hip hop sensations to be appearing willy-nilly
around the town. Click here to learn more about the diversity of Festival street performers, and how you can vote for your favourite as part of the Street Star Busking Competition.
parade winners revealed!
Saturday evening's Opening Parade was a blast, as the creativity and fun rolled through the streets of Cairns. The Festival judges had a hard time picking winners, but now they can be revealed. First place in the pedestrian category went to CairnsBands and the Woree High School marching band for their lead role ahead of the parade's King & Queen of Green. Second place went to Cairns Climate Action Network, and third place was garnered by Cairns BMX Club. In the Open category, Cairns Tropical Pride took top honours, while the spectacular NQ Hummer Mr Pinstripe Suit float got second place. Third place went to the fully crewed Cairns Dragon Boat. In the individual category, Ronald Ressecieu took first prize as a six-foot unicycle seahorse, and Zachary Barclay went home with second place as Pan the Pagan God. Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Festival's opening weekend. Proceeding from the amazing Xplosive Art fireworks show, we all had a blast!
unleash the bloggers!
Cairns Festival has gathered a small, dedicated population of bloggers who have agreed to share their thoughts on the 2010 season. Musings have begun to hit this website from Gavin King, SeaFM's lovely Pacey, and Cairns.com.au editor Simon Crerar. Find out what blew the mind of ABC Radio's Kier Shorey, by clicking here to read his blog post. Or hear how jam-packed Pacey's diary is by reading her latest entry (and why her feet hurt, here). Learn why Simon Crerar is hoping to put the election to bed, and hop on the Festival's creative juggernaut by clicking here. Stay connected to the goings-on and read the latest
Cairns Festival blogs, like this summation of Ego Lemos and Grrilla Step at Tanks Arts Centre, or this encapsulation of free films, food, and after work gatherings here.
Opening notes project arrives with the festival
Click here to view a few images form the very first gifting of Opening Notes TNQ, presented by Mayor Val Schier on the first day of the 2010 Cairns Festival (Friday 20 August) to a two-hour old, beautiful baby Eve, and her mother and father, at Cairns Base Hospital. 4,000 other new babies will go home with this special cultural package, gifted on the day of birth and at the place of arrival. Opening Notes has been made possible by dozens of our region's creative people. and the generous support of Cairns Penny Savings. For the background story of Cairns Regional Council's Opening Notes Project, click here.
festival conversations online
As a warm-up to the 2010 season, and yet another way to indicate the wealth of creative talent coming together for our cultural celebration, we've begun a series of short interviews with artists, musicians, and producers. Find out about the musical childhood of PAK Mag's Bree James, or how Matisse has influenced Sam Tupou's Mofo, or what the team at UMI Arts wishes for Cairns. Read how Dale Treanor of Mr Pinstripe Suit defines culture, how Zennith describe their music in three words, and what inspires Cultural Services Manager Leslie Sparkes. These are the local creative leaders involved in making Cairns Festival happen. And their work will energise our 20 August to 5 September celebration. To read a few thoughts from the people at the very heart of our 2010 program, just click here and then select a Conversation with...
MOFO MUSIC underground rises to the surface
Cairns creative hot shop, Merchants of Fine Objects, has invited a
heap of local musicians and purveyors of rock and roll to present a
three-part alternative music series during the 2010 Cairns Festival. The
Mo-fest Underground Music Series is a swarm of creative energy and
juices, and concludes this Friday 3 September with the Mofo 10.3 Tee
Shirt launch, new Mofo website launch, and that good ol' rock music by
The Fillip, Art Doom, Mod Cons, and the always awesome Raconteurs. Click here to see what it's all about. Your ears will never be the same...
cairns festival season is a go!
Cairns Regional Council Mayor Val Schier has announced the 2010 program, and hundreds of great creative opportunities are on the horizon in the Tropical Far North. The Festival runs from 20 August to 5 September, and complete event information is now available here on the official Cairns Festival website or by clicking on the below program guide and opening our paper-less online season guide.