31/5/2012
Emerge Festival 2012
Different Venues, Melbourne
The festival captivates Melbourne and Dandenong with a series of performances and cultural experiences encompassing music, dance, visual arts, film, exotic foods, ancient crafts and ceremonies happening all over the city. It commemorates United Nations World Refugee Day and celebrates Refugee Week in Victoria.
Melbourne’s rich cultural heritage comes alive with this colourful annual music and arts festival presenting amazing new refugee and emerging artists who have recently settled in Australia.
Launching with a massive one-day cultural celebration at Fitzroy Town Hall on Sunday 17 June, Emerge Festival will captivate Melbourne and Dandenong throughout June and July with a series of amazing performances and unique cultural experiences encompassing music, dance, visual arts, film, exotic foods, ancient crafts and ceremonies happening all over the city.
Presented by Multicultural Arts Victoria, Emerge Festival commemorates United Nations World Refugee Day and celebrates Refugee Week in Victoria. Refugees are survivors who have been forced to leave their whole lives behind due to persecution and they have survived because they have had courage, ingenuity and creativity. The only festival of its kind, Emerge unearths the incredible talents these people have brought to Australia and provides an opportunity for people of all ages and backgrounds to share and celebrate rich and undiscovered cultures all the way from Africa to the Far East, from the traditional to the contemporary.
Dance to rhythms from Sudan to Tibet whilst inhaling the aromas of an Ethiopian coffee ceremony and exotic foods from around the globe at the festival Main Event; join us for the inaugural Emerge Film Festival showcasing talented filmmakers from emerging communities; experience Somali culture, fauna and fauna in Reerguuraa Exhibition featuring the works of famed Somali visual artist Adam Genei; dance and discover the rhythmic connections between African and Latin America in Nkumba Rumba! Just a few of this year’s festival highlights!
Established in 2004 by Multicultural Arts Victoria, the Emerge Festival promotes diversity, social inclusion, respect and the breaking down of racism. Over its nine years the festival has steadily grown to attract audiences of 8,000+ with an annual program of inspiring and entertaining events all over Melbourne.
From June 1 to July 31 Emerge Festival will be a chance for people from all cultures to make music together, sing, dance, learn about each other, showcase and be proud of their culture, hear each other’s stories and make long-lasting cross-cultural connections and friendships.
The complete program is on the web site.
Jess Fairfax
Project Officer
Multicultural Arts Victoria
Level 1, South Melbourne Town Hall
208-220 Bank Street
PO Box 5113
South Melbourne VIC 3205
Phone (03) 9188 3681 Fax (03) 9686 6643
projects@multiculturalarts.com.au
Different Venues - Melbourne