Listen to Perth Festival Artistic Director Iain Grandage tell Nina Levy why he’s so excited to be presenting a local line-up in 2021.
Features/Multi-arts
A Festival to crush cultural cringe
18 November 2020
- Reading time • 5 minutesMulti-arts
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Iain Grandage has no qualms about 2021’s home-grown Festival program.
Though pandemic-related travel restrictions mean that the program won’t feature its usual helping of international and interstate talent, Perth Festival’s artistic director sees this not as a limitation but as an opportunity.
“We can invest far more heavily in local artists … seizing the moment that the world pandemic has given us to present a Festival for, by and with the people of Perth,” he says. “It’s still an international arts festival; the quality of art being presented is of international standard.”
Though Grandage believes that Western Australia’s cultural cringe is a thing of the past, his hope is that this year’s Festival will extinguish any glowing embers of that concept. “This will be proof of that pudding, celebrating the fact that we are capable of creating an international arts festival,” he says.
Listen to Grandage talk to Nina Levy about some of the highlights of his 2021 Perth Festival line-up:
NB: In order to fit in with Iain Grandage’s tight schedule, this recording took place in an environment that wasn’t as silent as we would have liked… think of it as atmospheric! Our sound quality will be improving soon – we recently received a grant that will enable us to record using professional equipment and have recordings professionally edited.
At the time of this interview, WA had hard border closures with all states.
Show notes
Shows discussed in this podcast include (in order of mention):
- MoveMoveMove, curated by Tyrone Earl Lraé Robinson
- Feminism Has No Borders, by Steamworks Arts
- Slow Burn, Together, by Emma Fishwick
- Structural Dependency, by Brooke Leeder & Dancers
- One & Many: A Chamber Music Series:
- Shaun Lee-Chen with St George’s Cathedral Consort
- Sara Macliver with Wind Quintet Plus
- Whistleblower, by The Last Great Hunt
- Dreams of Place by West Australian Symphony Orchestra & West Australian Youth Orchestra
- Tim Minchin with West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Apart/Together
- House by Dan Giovanni, Barking Gecko Theatre
- Wild Things, Perth Festival takes over Perth Zoo
- Koort, by Gina Williams & Guy Ghouse
- The Jazz Line: A Journey Through Jazz History, curated by Ali Bodycoat and Mace Francis
Read more about these shows and the rest of the Perth Festival programme at www.perthfestival.com.au
And read Nina’s Festival tips here.
Pictured top is Ella-Rose Trew in Emma Fishwick’s ‘Slow Burn, Together’. Photo: Emma Fishwick
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