Perth Festival’s summer celebration of culture and connection has culminated in a closing weekend of magnificent music and community joy.
Thousands of people have shared magic moments and unforgettable memories during Artistic Director Iain Grandage’s fifth and final Festival program, which has won wide popular appeal, critical acclaim and strong ticket sales.
Perth Festival 2024 opened with the triumphant world premiere of the tragic Noongar opera about forbidden love, Wundig wer Wilura. Three momentous weeks later, Aboriginal and international musicians joined audiences in a twilight of togetherness at our free Lotterywest Closing Event, Under the Same Sun.
Celebrating more than 70 years as Australia’s longest-running annual arts event, the success of Festival 2024 proudly confirms Perth as one of the world’s great festival cities. February truly was fabulous, with Fringe World also filling our city with exciting arts experiences.
Celebrating the theme of Ngaangk, our mother star for Festival 2024, the Festival sprang into life to surprise and inspire Festival-goers at assorted locations beyond the theatres, galleries and concert halls. Audiences splashed in communal joy at a public pool, eavesdropped on the lives of others at the beach, were led by teenagers through suburban streets, discovered artworks scattered around the city and wandered through a subterranean food court reclaimed by mother nature.
Image: Maatakitj (Clint Bracknell) and Artistic Director Iain Grandage on stage at Under the Same Sun.
Also forging deeper understanding and connection was our extensive Connect program of special behind-the-scenes arts-sector support, creative learning and community engagement experiences. And, for the third year, we took the Festival on the road with our Touring WA program from the Kimberley to the Great Southern.
"I am thrilled that audiences from near and far have so warmly embraced our celebration of Western Australian stories alongside those from some of the world’s great artists," Grandage says.
"It is a delight and honour for the Festival to be able to help realise our artists’ ambitious visions and share them with people across our beautiful city and regional WA.
"It has been the greatest privilege to work as part of this wonderful Festival team over the last five years. As the sun sets on my tenure, I look forward to cheering from bleachers as the Festival continues to foster a deep sense of belonging amongst our audiences and artists."
Lotterywest Films continues under the stars at UWA Somerville, with Mads Mikkelson as staunch as ever in the epic 18th century Nordic western The Promised Land running all this week.
Film lovers who missed their favourite features earlier in the season can catch a selection of them for Encore Week which closes the Somerville season from 25-31 March. There is still plenty of brilliant free art to see in the 2024 Festival program. Our extensive free Visual Arts program continues through to late March and April at galleries throughout Perth.
Festival Chair Ben Wyatt congratulated Iain Grandage for his artistic vision and leadership in bringing life-affirming experiences to Perth and around the State over his five-year term.
"Iain has been a champion for local artists, giving them the freedom and resources to tell their stories on a grand scale in an international arts festival," he said.
"His five programs from 2020 have celebrated our sense of place, our living indigenous culture and the voices of artists from diverse backgrounds."
The Perth Festival team is incredibly grateful to our awesome audiences, artists, volunteers, corporate partners, supporters and donors whose generous commitment have made the Festival possible. We thank Principal Partner Lotterywest, Founding Partner The University of Western Australia and all those who have made such a positive impact on our community through the Festival.
We can’t wait to welcome everyone again for incoming Artistic Director Anna Reece’s Perth Festival 2025 program, which will be announced later this year.
Lotterywest Films runs to Sunday 31 March 2024.