With 75 events, Australia Fest comes to India with a packed schedule

They have wowed Indian audiences with delectable culinary shows, and are proud hosts of some of the best music and theatre. Now, the wizards of Oz have hopped on to different Indian states to kickstart the Australia Fest — a six-month-long packed schedule of events that will showcase the country’s cultural riches till March next year. 

In all, 75 events are planned across 20 cities. MasterChef Australia judge Gary Mehigan will be among the first to arrive next week. He is one of the three ambassadors promoting the festival, along with author John Zubrzychi, who is promoting his new book on India’s tryst with magic, Jadoowallahs, Jugglers and Jinns: A Magical History of India, and musician Raghav Sachar.

The Australian World Orchestra  Photo courtesy: Australia fest

They 

Mehigan has an old connection with India, where he has travelled extensively for food for his shows, Far Flung and Masters of Taste. Speaking at the launch of the Australia Fest in Delhi over a video call from Greece, Mehigan couldn’t stop taking about his love for Indian green chickpeas. “It’s the best thing I have tasted in the last couple of years, and you guys take it for granted,” he quipped. He will be in Delhi and Mumbai to conduct master classes and whip up the best of Australian cuisine.

The Bangarra Dance Theatre is arguably the highlight of the fest. Every dancer has an aboriginal and/or Torres Strait (which lies between Australia and New Guinea) lineage, and the group’s performance is a culmination of 65,000 years of culture. They will be performing in Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai.

MasterChef Australia judge Gary Mehigan  Photo courtesy: Australia fest

Slingsby, an internationally-acclaimed theatre company, is bringing Emil and the Detectives, a performance helmed by just two artistes “immersed in smoke, mirrors and miniature worlds”, to Delhi and Mumbai, along with a theatre workshop in Jaipur.

The Australian World Orchestra will be performing, too. As many as 52 of the country’s finest musicians will bring alive Mozart, Bizet and Beethoven in Chennai, Kochi and Mumbai, while Australian’s wittiest stand-up comedians, like Guy Montgomery and Mel Buttle, will be on a multi-city roadshow.

Holding Pattern by artist Julie Gough   Photo courtesy: Australia fest

Australian and Indian designers will collaborate for the Amazon Fashion week in October. The Three Seas, a multi-cultural band known for fusing Australian jazz with Bengali folk music, will perform at multiple venues in December. And works of Australian artists Julie Gough and Brook Andrew will be on display at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale from December 2018 to March 2019.

Slings by’s Emil and the Detectives   Photo courtesy: Australia fest

Also part of the festival are screenings of award-winning Australian films, which  include Kate Winslet-starrer Dressmaker, a tale of a glamourous woman returning to a small town to take care of her ailing mother, and The Song Keepers, a film about an aboriginal women’s choir on a historic band tour.

The Three Seas    Photo courtesy: Australia fest

No cultural bouquet of Australia is complete without a sprinkling of cricket. The highlight of the festival’s closing next year will be Australia’s tour to India for an ODI and T20 series in February and March. The Australian cricket team will also engage with some chosen fanatics in India.

Cherry Pickings
 

• Bangarra Dance Theatre - A contemporary dance performance with movements that go back 65,000 years 
• Slingby Theatre Company - A theatre adaptation of Eric Master’s 1929 novella Emil and the Detectives
• Churning Waters - A group of Aboriginal, Australian and Indian artists predicting the changing climate through dance, music and storytelling
• Australian World Orchestra - Symphonies by 52 of Australia’s finest classical musicians
• Master class with Gary Mehigan - MasterChef Australia judge brings his favourite Australian ingredients to the Indian table