Frinj forges ahead
Natimuk is primed to welcome creatives from across Victoria for one of the region’s largest arts and culture festivals later this year.
Nati Frinj Biennale, planned for October 29 to 31, is a celebration of the town’s cultural offerings and invited artists.
Event leaders are busy planning a series of performances, art displays, music and workshops for the three-day festival. They are hopeful the program will be unaffected by COVID-19 lockdowns.
Biennale director Hannah French said the pandemic presented a major planning challenge.
But she said it was crucial to push ahead with plans to support the performing arts sector, which had been ‘devastated’ by lockdowns in the past 16 months.
“We need to sit down and map this out with the team quite seriously because the festival will look a little different to when we ran it in 2019,” Ms French said.
“At the moment I’m thinking about if we need a back-up date in case we go into lockdown again.
“The lockdowns are just heartbreaking to see because the arts sector has been devastated. We’re hoping we can run this event to support the sector through this hard time.”
Ms French said a Horsham Rural City Council COVID-19 support grant would enable the festival committee to invest in COVID-SAFE planning.
“The council is giving us support to hire extra staff for COVID cleaning,” she said.
“We were also able to invest in a cashless system, so we don’t have volunteers handling cash, and we will have ticket sales online.
“We’re also looking at having the festival streamed online so people can still access the festival content if they cannot attend.”
When the festival ran in 2019 it attracted patron numbers in the thousands, which Ms French admitted was ‘a distant, but happy’ memory.
“We estimate we had about 3500 to 5000 people throughout the weekend,” she said.
“We get a lot of people from Melbourne, interstate and people from the local area as well.
“We were so lucky with the timing of our last event, without any of the current stresses of the pandemic – it’s extraordinary to reflect upon.”
A series of bamboo structures is one of many projects in the pipeline for the Nati Frinj Biennale this year.
Bamboo focus
Ms French said organisers were using a $64,000 Festivals Australia grant for the projects.
The bamboo focus continues on from a 2019 project called the ‘Styckx Theatre’ – a 45-metre long, 30-metre wide and 16-metre high bamboo theatre.
“This year it’s been exciting as we have people inspired by that design and developing bamboo activation in the town,” Ms French said.
“There is a structure called Power, which will be connected to the Natimuk Graincorp silo with a high-line.
“There will also be a bamboo forest and some bamboo tripods forming the backdrop for a performance called ‘Apart, Together’.
“They will be host to really exquisite moments as part of the festival.”
The festival will also feature a project called ‘Nati Fridge’ where Natimuk artist Verity Higgins and Ballarat-based First Nations collective Pitcha Makin Fellas will paint a series of fridges that will feature throughout the town as part of a visual arts trail.
Ms French said she was hoping to organise a catch-up with Natimuk community to discuss further planning after COVID-19 restrictions eased.