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The Festivals and Conferences news page covers events with a mixture of art forms. For music festivals, see the Performance news page. For writers festivals, see the Language and Literature news page. See also Film and Digital Media festivals.
27–29 November 2009
This three-day festival features arts, music, interactive installation, twisted sculpture and cutting edge theatre.
Blue King Brown. Image courtesy of the Woodford Folk Festival.
27 December 2009 – 1 January 2010
The Woodford Folk Festival is an event of international standing. Held over six days and six nights it presents more than 2000 performers and 400 events with concerts, dances, workshops, forums, street theatre, writers' panels, film festival, comedy sessions, acoustic jams, social dialogue and debate, a children's festival, art and craft workshops and late night cabarets. The festival features Australian performers and a gathering of international guests. Woodford.
29 December 2009 – 1 January 2010
This festival features two hundred bands performing across ten stages. There are theatre, cabaret and comedy programs, a children's festival and dozens of free workshops. Glenworth Valley.
28 December 2009 – 3 January 2010
The 2009/2010 Taste Festival will celebrate the highest quality Tasmanian food, beverages and local produce with an exceptional multi-arts, culture, community and sports program.
9–31 January 2010
Marked by exceptional dance, theatre, music and film, the program of the 2010 Sydney Festival introduces a wide range of creative talents making their Sydney debuts, as well as welcoming back some old festival friends. Various locations.
5–7 February 2010
The 2010 Festival will begin with Carnival in the City and a Multicultural Marketplace on Friday evening. Program includes Food and Dance Spectacular, Greek Glendi, Contact Canberra and Chinese New Year celebrations. Various locations.
12–14 February 2010
Festivale 2010 will offer a menu of quality Tasmanian food and wine mixed with music, dance and street theatre. Festivale will feature 70 Tasmanian-grown and Tasmanian-made food and wine stalls and performances by The Black Sorrows, Russell Morris and James Reyne along with local bands. City Park.
Image courtesy of the Adelaide Festival.
February – March 2010
The Adelaide Festival offers a jam-packed program across every genre for the festival's 50th anniversary, with plans to present over 250 performances, events and exhibitions in 33 venues throughout Adelaide. Various locations.
March 2010
The SheppARTon Festival, in partnership with the University of Melbourne, is now in its 13th year featuring a program of film, food, music, performance and art. The Shepparton community is renowned for coming together when times are tough and for welcoming people escaping oppression or conflict. Various locations.
For more festivals see our Australian story on Festivals.
There are currently no conferences listed.
Entries by 10 December 2009
Expressions of interest are invited for creative concepts, projects, ideas, workshops, interactive events and presentations that respond to the conference core themes. These are Footprints (shaping identity and celebrating diversity), Threads (collaboration on beliefs, ideas, and meaning), Resilience (building capacity and resources) and Momentum (commitment to change).
Entries by 15 February 2010
The closing date for applications for the next round of Festivals Australia funding is 15 February 2010, for projects commencing on or after 1 July 2010. Festivals Australia is an Australian Government program which funds Australian regional and community festivals to present quality cultural projects. Funding is available to add a new or special sort of cultural activity.
17 November 2009
Arts Minister Peter Garrett announced funding of $420,500 for arts and cultural activities at 27 community festivals around Australia. 'Festivals in outer regional and remote communities will have the opportunity to add special arts and performance projects to their programs, such as dance workshops, storytelling, circus arts, puppetry and film,' Mr Garrett said. 'These new projects add exciting elements to the celebrations and help regional tourism, as well as community spirit, in these towns.' Mr Garrett welcomed the Indigenous-related theme of several of the festivals, including Merge Ahead at Palmerston festival in the Northern Territory, which also has a youth focus.
For more information see our Australian story on Festivals.
To contact us with your news and events, please email the News Editor, NewsEditor at culture dot gov dot au, including the URL of your website.
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