The Weekender: February 10 – 12
St Kilda Festival
Sunday, February 12 (9.00am – midnight) | St Kilda Foreshore
Photo: Chris Phutully via Flickr
Are you manic for some sunshine, music, the beach and free events? Come to St Kilda Festival this Sunday and enjoy the biggest free summer celebration in Australia!
Attracting more than 400,000 people every year, the annual festival has plenty on offer for those looking to party at the St Kilda Foreshore. Enjoy the astonishing talents of young Australian musicians and bands on stage, join in on dance workshops, play on the carnival rides and, if that’s not enough, soak in the gorgeous views St Kilda has to offer.
Alcohol is not permitted within the Festival Precinct and attendees are also advised that if they wish to avoid traffic jams, leaving earlier than midnight would be recommended.
For more information, visit St Kilda Festival official website.
Jaipur Literature Festival Melbourne
Saturday, February 11 – Sunday, February 12 (9.00am – 5.00pm) | Deakin Edge, Federation Square, Melbourne
Interested in Indian literature and want to know more about it? This Sunday, Federation Square will host the Jaipur Literature Festival, launched for the first time in Melbourne this year!
Collaborating with Melbourne Writers Festival, JLF invites both Indian and Australian writers to celebrate Indian writing and talk about literature, gender, culture and aging issues in India and Australia. Additionally, festival patrons will be treated to some astounding live performances and will experience a remarkable literary and multicultural experience.
The opening will be on Saturday night with most programs hosted for Sunday. Entry is free, so remember to mark it in your planner!
Visit the official website of JLF for more information on the event.
Lantern Festival
Sunday, February 12 (9.00am – 4.00pm) | Queen Victoria Market (Cnr Elizabeth St & Victoria St, Melbourne)
Photo: epSos.de via Flickr
Also known as Chinese Valentine’s Day, the Lantern Festival is a traditional Chinese celebration, filled with spectacular lantern demonstrations and interesting games.
This weekend, gather your friends at Queen Victoria Market to enjoy this year’s Lantern Festival and celebrate an exciting Chinese New Year with free events. Entertainment includes Asian-inspired games, martial arts and lion performances. Asian food stalls will be set up around the main stage too, so that you can partake in the activities while enjoying mouthwatering food!
Also, don’t forget to say hi to Cai Shen, the Chinese god of prosperity, who’ll be roaming the festival all day long. Have the rest of the year blessed by him!
For more information on Lantern Festival on Queen Victoria Market, visit Queen Victoria Market website.
After Shock: Artists Talk
Sunday, February 12 (3.00pm – 6.00pm) | Arts House (North Melbourne Town Hall, 521 Queensberry St, North Melbourne)
chelfitsch – Times Journey Through a Room (Feb 9 – 12) | Photo: Elke Van den Ende
The successive catastrophes that struck Fukushima in March 2011 shocked the world. Six years have passed since the tragedy and still Fukushima suffers. How then should people, particularly artists, react to the human and environmental tragedy?
After Shock: Artists Talk, presented by Asia TOPA and Arts House, might lead you to an answer this Sunday when you can chat to Japanese artists dealing with life and art after the tragedy. Shun Hamanaka, director and writer of Kagerou – Study of Translating Performance, and artists from chelfitsch will be speaking at the event and they too will premiere their shows this month as part of Asia TOPA too.
chelfitsch’s Time’s Journey Through a Room is a play about the ghost of a woman, her surviving husband and his new partner attempting to cope with the 2011 disaster (February 9 – 12) while Hamanaka’s Kagerou – Study of Translating Performance melds sound recordings and video footage of port town Hinsanohama in an intimate-documentary style performance of a woman who still lives there (February 15 – 18). Both shows will be hosted at Arts House as well and are ticketed events.
The After Shock: Artists Talk event is free, however booking is required. For more information, visit the event official webpage.