Barunga Festival has unveiled its final program for 2013, welcoming Gurrumul and John Butler to headline, with Thelma Plum, Emma Louise, B2M, Tjupi Band, Lonely Boys and Tom E. Lewis also leading the musical charge.
Bigger and better than ever in 2013, Barunga has been re-energized by new festival directors, Skinnyfish Music. Skinnyfish, under the leadership of 2013 NT Australians of the Year, Mark Grose and Michael Hohnen, has been granted the rights to run the festival for the next 5 years with the blessing of the traditional owners of Barunga.
As you would imagine with Skinnyfish involved, music will play a significant role in this year’s Festival, which is also a celebration of sport and culture like no other in Australia.
Friday night is party night, so get your dancing shoes on and experience the Barunga Festival dance party. Apparently if you don’t know what that means you’re too old to be there but organisers are encouraging people to come along and watch dance moves like you’ve never seen before anyway. Kris Keogh and the kids of Barunga are promising remixes, dance beats and more.
Saturday night is Community Bands Night on the Skinnyfish Stage. All night long band after band will hit the stage and unleash the hard driving rock sound that the Top End is known for. Bands descend from far and wide to take to the Barunga stage. You will never hear a collection of bands like this anywhere else in the world. And you will never see an audience who loves their bands as much as the Barunga community! Not to be missed.
Sunday night is concert night and will be a very special evening. John Butler will start the evening on the stage that his Seed Foundation has supported for so many years. Gurrumul will perform to the public for the first time in the Territory since 2008. With music from the Top End to the Centre, two celebrated Territorian bands B2M and Tjupi Band will take the night away and close out the 2013 festival. Maestro MC Jason de Santis will lead you through an evening’s entertainment that you will never forget.
If the big concerts are not your thing, this year for the first time we introduce the APRA Music Tent. Located down by the river, with a fire pit to keep everyone warm at night, the Tent will seduce you with its mellow, relaxed atmosphere. During the day, hear the Barunga Women’s Choir or join in language classes and learn some Kriol. After dark, sit back, relax, breath in the cool night air and be entertained by B2M (acoustic!), Tom E. Lewis, and Reconciliation Australia’s 2013 Ambassadors and Triple J darlings Thelma Plum and Emma Louise. The APRA Music tent is intentionally loosely programmed to allow room for anyone that pops by to get up and perform. You never know who will be there. We’re promising performances that you will never see anywhere ever again. Be there.
In keeping with the traditions that have made Barunga Festival the largest remote community festival in Australia and one of the Northern Territory’s most treasured celebrations of Indigenous culture, there will be a full program of music, sport and culture – plenty to do all weekend no matter how young or old you are!
Also on offer will be a hub of entertainment, food and art at Heritage Park, free kids entertainment, 40 sports teams battling it out over the weekend and local community members teaching the finer points of spear throwing, damper making, didge playing and more at Culture Park.
As the sun sets every evening, community members and visitors will sit down together to the mesmerizing rhythms of the clap sticks and the haunting chants of the songmen as the dancers gather for bungul/traditional dance.
Come to Barunga in 2013. It promises to be a big one!
Barunga Festival 2013 Timetable
Click here to see the full 2013 program
Barunga Festival
7th – 10th June 2013
Tickets: www.moshtix.com.au
Adults – $30
Children 12-18yrs – $10 (under 12 free)
Entry fee valid for 3-day festival. Access from 3pm Friday 7th June.
Camping available in Barunga community & accommodation options in Beswick and Katherine.
Barunga is located 70kms south of Katherine on the Central Arnhem Highway & fuel is unavailable for sale in Barunga.
No permits are required. Barunga is a dry community. Barunga Festival is a strictly drug and alcohol free event.
Barunga Festival now has a healthy food policy.
