Canberra’s Easter weekend music festival that people have been setting their watch to for over 50 years is nearly upon us once again.
That’s right, ‘The Folkie’ is fast approaching, with the 2020 festival presenting over 200 acts in 16 venues including a dedicated kids’ festival, street food and stalls, local beer and wine, an array of street and circus performances, and more.
Twenty-nine international acts from across the globe will be performing, and will join a bevy of Australian acts led by Festival Youth Ambassador, Canberra’s Lucy Sugerman.
This year, The Folkie will support fire-affected folk festivals. The popular Fitzroy Pavilion venue will be renamed the Hope for Folk stage, with 100% of proceeds from the adjoining bar going to the Cobargo, Nariel Creek and Numeralla folk communities. On the Saturday, it will host a concert featuring performers originally programmed for those festivals.
The 54th National Folk Festival will be held at Exhibition Park in Canberra from 9-13 April; folkfestival.org.au
Photographers unite for IWD
Hundreds of female photographers will converge on the Capital for the Canberra Day long weekend for a series of events promoting equality and inclusion in the arts.
The Loud and Luminous project celebrates and recognises the important contributions of contemporary women photographers in Australia.
The theme for Loud and Luminous 2020 is equality, echoing the UN sustainable development goals of ‘gender equality’.
The Canberra symposium will be held 6 March at Harmonie German Club, Narrabundah; loudandluminous.com.au
Club Ate to light up NGA
Performance artists and leaders of the Sydney queer art and club scene, Club Ate, will light up the iconic 60m façade of the National Gallery of Australia for Canberra’s 2020 Enlighten Festival.
Over 11 nights, water and bodies will flow across the Gallery’s facade in Club Ate’s monumental video projection, In Muva We Trust.
In response to the illuminations, the collective, led by interdisciplinary artists Bhenji Ra and Justin Shoulder, will also host Club Muva, a free, one-night-only, live event to be held Saturday 7 March. For more information, visit nga.gov.au/enlighten
