Australia to host major cultural festival in India

Australia's High Commissioner to India, Harinder Sidhu, on Tuesday unveiled the program for Australia Fest - a six-month celebration of Australian culture, involving over 75 events across 20 cities in India.

"Beginning this September, Australia's culture, creativity and dynamism will be on show across India. Australia Fest events will feature music, art, food, film, literature, dance, theatre, sport and much more," announced Sidhu.

Highlighting the festival's significance, Sidhu said, "It has long been my conviction that connections between people will be the defining feature of the Australia-India relationship. With Australia Fest, we aim to deepen the engagement between our two countries and further strengthen our people-to-people ties."

The centrepiece of Australia Fest will be the tour of Bangarra Dance Theatre, with performances in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Bangarra is Australia's leading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance company, internationally acclaimed for combining more than 65,000 years of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture with powerful contemporary dance, immersive soundscapes, music and design.

Other highlights include a series of interactive food and beverage demonstrations by MasterChef Australia judge Gary Mehigan; soulful fusion of modern Australian jazz with West Bengali folk music by The Three Seas; a showcase of collections by acclaimed Australian fashion designers using Indian handloom textiles at Amazon India Fashion Week; the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow featuring some of Australia's wittiest comedians; the best of Australian cinema at various film festivals across India; the launch of the Australian Open International BallKids program in India; and much more.

At the event, Sidhu launched the festival website and also introduced three Australia Fest Ambassadors, Australian cooking sensation Gary Mehigan, and renowned Australian author John Zubrzycki and well-known music composer and Australian alumnus Raghav Sachar.

Australia Fest will culminate on March 30 2019.