With Ruth O’Brien
Hello beautiful people and welcome to this month’s Locality!
I love this time of year. As I type, I can hear kids splashing in the pool downstairs, birds chirping away, and the warm breeze blowing through the open door. Lovely! And unless you suffer terrible hayfever (like my poor Dad) there’s no reason not to get outdoors and enjoy some splendiferous events put on by local artists, creatives, and makers.
So let’s jump in!
On Sunday, 20 October, the inaugural Braddon Busking Festival will be kicking off in Mort, Lonsdale and Elouera Streets. Put together by the Braddon Collective – a local groups of movers and shakers making things happen in the Inner North – the event is open to musicians, dancers, and street performers of any kind.
To be involved in the official festival and thus compete for prizes, all buskers must be registered and are required to pay a small entry fee to help support the event.
For punters wishing to experience all this entertainment and support local performers, head over to the above locations between 11am-7pm. Should be a great day!
At Transit Bar on Thursday, 24 October you can hear the latest single from Muddy Wolfe performed live. Presented by 2410 Records, the band’s new song Willie Allen presents a story that reminds us of Australia’s not-so-nice history regarding the treatment of Indigenous Australians.
WIllie Allen is featured on their upcoming EP, due for release in December. Supporting bands include Wandering Ghosts and Wesley and The Crushers – all fantastic acts in their own right. Doors open at 8pm and tickets are $10 + booking fee via Moshtix.
Saturday, 26 October features a mass of great events – do a quick Facebook search and you’ll see what I mean. But the one I really want to mention and support this month is Music 4 Mental Health: A Mental Health Month Event. Coordinated by Canberra’s favourite fun, indie-pop choir, Mixtape Chorus, this gig will showcase some of Canberra’s finest live musicians who will both entertain and share with us their experience of music’s positive benefits for mental health.
The amazing local line-up includes Canberra legends Endrey, JAYNE., Evan Buckley (The Burley Griffin) and Scoob McGoon. You will even get to experience the benefits of singing about mental health first-hand by learning a song with Mixtape Chorus! This great gig is on at The Polo (Polish Club) from 2-6pm. Tickets are free but registration (via Eventbrite) is encouraged.
Also at The Polo, this time on Friday, 1 November, local singer-songwriter Hope Wilkins will launch her most recent single, Unstable. After winning a competition through triple j Unearthed to have her debut music video recorded with students from NIDA in Sydney, Hope is ready to share the next chapter in her ever-expanding repertoire.
Supporting on the night are local favourites Peach Lane, ARCHIE, and Jamie Leone. Get your tickets through HumanTix for the insanely cheap price of $10+ booking fee. Also, they have accessibility info on the booking website! #impressed #accessiblegigs. Doors open at 8pm.
On Saturday, 2 November, Gorman House Arts Centre will be hosting CBR Fair Day 2019. In partnership with the ACT Government, Ainslie & Gorman Arts Centres and the SpringOut Pride Festival, the AIDS Action Council bring together the Fair to celebrate all of the wonderful, brave, and loveable aspects of Canberra’s unique LGBTQI+ culture. The day begins at 11am and will wrap up around 5pm. The event is free to attend and will feature an enormous variety of amazing performances, arts and crafts activities, and stalls. Sounds like a wonderful day out all round!
And a reminder that over at NGA, the last performance of Duto Hardono’s In Harmonia Progressio work, as part of Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia exhibition, will be happening between 11am-12pm on Saturday, 26 October. It’s a live vocal performance of action and reaction that transforms language, evoking universal forms of human communication.
Realised by a local choir throughout the Gallery, In Harmonia Progressio creates new, improvised compositions with every performance. And it just so happens that I feature in this one! It’s been a great project to work on every fortnight with a lovely bunch of fellow Canberrans. Come and say hi!
Finally, and to emphasise the call at the top of this column, if you want your event featured in the next Locality (which covers the second half of November and the first half of December) send me an email at ruthmvobrien@gmail.com. I’m totes interested in writing about the diversity our local arts scene has to offer so if you’re a creative, artist, or maker of any sort (or, indeed, know one), send me your event info!
’Til next month, ciao! xo
