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Free and Easy at Perth Festival

Exhibitions, live music and sunset rituals.

One third of the 2018 Perth Festival program is completely free, so dive in and experience all you can.

Perth Festival Artistic Director Wendy Martin said: ‘We want to offer unique and inspiring experiences for everyone that are free band accessible, fun and unforgettable. More than a third of our festival program is free, from our beautiful opening event and the extraordinary local music at Elizabeth Quay to family-friendly writers activities and visual arts around the city’s galleries.’

The 2018 Festival opens with an epic experience of wonderment and delight as ethereal voices descend from the skies above and encompass the city in Siren Song. As the setting sun ushers in Perth Festival 2018, a Noongar smoking ceremony reaches its climax at Elizabeth Quay and the delicate, eerie voices of women singing – broadcast from loudspeakers atop city buildings – draw all eyes upward in the fading light.

Siren Song

Siren Song lasts around seven minutes – the time it takes for the sun to fully clear the horizon – at dawn and dusk for the first ten days of the Festival. Sound artist Byron J Scullin and curatorial duo Supple Fox have created a unique soundscape that will stop people in their tracks and bring them a new and rich experience of the changing hues of our city governed by the rituals of sunrise and sunset. Suitable for the entire family, the irresistible Perth Festival commission will stir all Perth residents to see their city anew in this unique audio experience that sits in the sky.

Museum of Water

Museum of Water is a radically different museum that showcases, in Australia’s driest state, our connection to water. Since Perth Festival 2017, UK artist Amy Sharrocks has been towing her rusty trailer around the State, turning strangers into friends and liquid into art as she collects watery donations and the memories that go with them. Now it’s time for you to experience this ever-growing collection by wandering through a sensory and living installation at Fremantle Arts Centre. Bring along a bottle and story of your own and immerse yourself in all the free events including performances, music, public talks, special water bar and even a water slide.

Sunny afternoon performances at Fremantle Arts Centre make up the Oceanic Sessions, a series of family-friendly musical adventures from across the Indian Ocean. We journey through sound from the traditional island beats of Reunion Island, with the charismatic and seductive Maya Kamaty and the infectiously energetic band of brothers and cousins Kiltir, to the contemporary jazz fusion of Kenya’s smoky soul vocalist Maia von Lekow and the Afrobeat sensuality of Ghana’s experimental singer/songwriter Jojo Abot.

The relaxed outdoor setting of The Gardens Stage at Chevron Gardens is back at Elizabeth Quay and packed with home-grown free music delights. Drop in Monday to Sunday, 5pm – late, kick back and soak up the sweet sounds of our local music artists and DJs. Keep an eye out on social media and the website for announcements on the line-up.

Extending in 2018 to seven full days and nights of festivities, Writers Week is a celebration of Australian storytelling today, curated by William Yeoman. Writers Week is jam packed full of family-friendly freebies as words and ideas swirl like a hurricane around The University Club of Western Australia – our new hub for writers, storytellers, musicians, artists and theatre makers. And the love of literature spreads into venues across Perth.

The 2018 Visual Arts program offers an enormous selection of free exhibitions from the most compelling local and international contemporary artists. For the first time, art-lovers can immerse themselves in the Australian premiere of celebrated South Korean multimedia artist Kimsooja.

From New Zealand, Lisa Reihana presents Emissaries, one of the big hits of the 2017 Venice Biennale; the ambitious animated panoramic video re-imagining historical accounts of Captain Cook’s Pacific exploration.

Acclaimed Dutch/Australian artist Pilar Mata Dupont’s Undesirable Bodies examines the legacies of colonisation in a bold new series of photographs and video installations that brings to life the country of Yindjibarndi people.

The exhibition Human Nature by distinguished Yemenborn London-based artist Zadok Ben-David features two bewitching installations that contemplate humankind’s relationship to nature.

In a world premiere, Banjawarn is a chilling investigation by Perth artist Christopher Charles into the bizarre activities of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo.

Known for her stoic performance art, Australian artist Latai Taumopeau presents Repatriate, an evocative expression of the devastation brought about by climate change facing Pacific Island communities.


SIREN SONG
WHERE: The skies of Perth
WHEN: Fri 9 – Sun 18 Feb, sunrise and sunset.

MUSEUM OF WATER
WHERE: Fremantle Arts Centre
WHEN: Wed 7 Feb – Fri 23 Mar, 10am – 5pm
Donate your water – Wed 7 Feb – Fri 23 Mar, 11am – 3pm

SUNDAY MUSIC – OCEANIC SESSIONS
WHERE: Fremantle Arts Centre
WHEN: Sun 11 Feb – Sun 4 Mar, 2pm – 4pm

KIMSOOJA
WHERE: Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
WHEN: Sat 17 Feb – Wed 25 Apr, 10am – 5pm, closed on Mondays.

LISA REIHANA
WHERE: John Curtin Gallery
WHEN: Tue 6 Feb – Sun 22 Apr, Mon – Sat 11am – 5 pm, Sun 12pm – 4pm

LATAI TAUMOEPEAU
WHERE: Fremantle Arts Centre
WHEN: Wed 7 Feb – Fri 23 Mar, 10am – 5pm

CHRISTOPHER CHARLES
WHERE: Gallery Central, North Metropolitan TAFE
WHEN: Fri 9 Feb – Sat 3 Mar, 12pm – 7pm, closed on Sundays.

ZADOK BEN-DAVID
WHERE: Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery
WHEN: Sat 10 Feb – Sat 21 Apr, 11am – 5pm, closed on Sundays and Mondays.

PILAR MATA DUPONT
WHERE: FORM Gallery
WHEN: Fri 2 Feb – Fri 6 Apr, 10am – 5pm, closed on Sundays and Mondays.

CHEVRON GARDENS, THE GARDENS STAGE
WHERE: Chevron Gardens, Elizabeth Quay
WHEN: Fri 9 Feb – Sun 4 Mar, 5pm – late