FESTIVALS PART OF OUR EVOLUTION AS A CULTURAL CITY

FESTIVALS are a reason for us to come together.

For a moment in time, a festival creates a temporary community; people gathered in the one place, at one time, for a shared experience. There is nothing else quite like it.

Festivals are also incredible environments to spark conversations about our city and its evolving cultural identity.

When people think of the Gold Coast, they don’t immediately align it with a multicultural city, but we are.

We literally have the world at our doorstep with more than a quarter of our city locals born overseas and that is on the rise.

International borders may have reopened but festivals have the capacity to put the world on a stage, and with BLEACH* festival, the world being reflected is a contemporary, multicultural Gold Coast.

I’m not suggesting a festival replaces travel abroad. I am suggesting a festival is a crucible for rich, cultural experiences that have the capacity to transport us to another time and another place while deepening our connection and understanding to home. In a little under a month, BLEACH* festival opens with a program that traverses the globe.

We are creating a new opera featuring incredible music from Sri Lanka, the Cook Islands, New Zealand, Brazil, Lebanon, China, Wales and the Philippines.

This new work, made in collaboration with Gold Coast locals and the incredibly talented team at Opera Queensland, will play under the stars at the Botanic Gardens for three nights during BLEACH*.

Works like this remind me that Australia, the Gold Coast, is an incredible place to call home.

And when we think about global cities and experiences that connect us to place, experiences we seek out when travelling abroad, to learn more about a culture and a city’s identity, then we must also look to our own First People’s culture and stories, here in Australia.

One of the most engaging offerings we have in the festival this year is a tailored feast designed by Quandamooka chef Keiron Anderson.

With emu ribs and grey kangaroo on the menu, cooked on an open fire, this is an up-close-and-personal experience that connects food to culture to place and identity.

BLEACH* hosts multiple works and experiences for people to learn more about our own history, precolonisation, whether that’s through botanical dyeing with native flora, or string making with beach hibiscus, or deepening our knowledge around language and identity through Yugambeh story and song. These experiences are the first to sell out at BLEACH*, which tells me people want to connect, engage, and learn more about this place we call home from the Traditional Owners.

So, if you’re looking for rich cultural experiences, that are authentic, closer to home, and a little bit different, then step outside your front door and be our guest at this year’s BLEACH*.