Emerge Festival will captivate Melbourne throughout the winter months of May-June with a series of performances and unique cultural experiences encompassing music, dance, visual arts, exotic foods, ancient crafts and ceremonies.
The Festival will be launched with Emerge in the West, a massive one-day cultural celebration in Footscray on May 17 and will make its way across metro Melbourne over 6 exciting weeks, featuring the signature Emerge Main Event, at Fitzroy Town Hall on June 15 and an exciting showcase of Hazaragi culture at the Omagh Celebrations in Dandenong on June 22. Footscray’s finest African dance grooves, Sudanese reggae, Ethiopian jazz, Azmari banter, Somali pop and spoken word will feature at Emerge in the West, while Emerge Main Event will offer a feast of engaging workshops, sounds from Samoa to Afghanistan and a crafty artisans marketplace. ReMastered Myths will see cultures, sounds and rhythms collide with three new and unlikely collaborations and Omagh Celebrations will give voice to the strong, proud and beautiful Hazara culture though poetry, music and theatre.
Two unique visual arts exhibitions from award winning photojournalist Barat Ali Batoor and Eritrean painter Michael Adonai will describe different aspects of the refugee experience while artists from Melbourne’s Playback Theatre will enact real life stories of resilience, courage and hope from refugee community members. Emerge Festival commemorates United Nations World Refugee Day and celebrates Refugee Week in Victoria. Refugees are survivors who have been forced to leave their whole lives behind due to persecution.
They have survived because they have had courage, ingenuity and creativity. The only festival of its kind, Emerge unearths the incredible talents these people have brought to Australia and provides an opportunity for people of all ages and backgrounds to share and celebrate rich and undiscovered cultures all the way from Africa to the Far East, from the traditional to the contemporary. For information on all of the above events go to www.multiculturalarts.com.au
