Adelaide is gearing up for a two-month program of Hellenic arts and cultural events as the annual FESTIVAL HELLENIKA returns in 2010.
The 2010 program will start with ‘The Migration of Ideas: It’s All Greek to Me’ exhibition at the Immigration Museum and will finish with a night of local artists presenting their work on film as well as their creative writing and performances at the historic Scots Church in the city centre.
Another seven events will be on offer to Adelaideans in the course of the festival, including music workshops, a season of Greek films and am exhibition which will feature Adelaide’s unrecognised and mostly unnoticed Hellenic inspired imagery.
Asked what new elements have been introduced into the Festival in 2010, festival spokesperson Stamatiki Kritas said:
“We try to introduce new and exciting elements into the festival every year.
Our annual music concert Music Hellenika® this year is dedicated to the GREEK DIVAS – Women in Greek songs. We are also delighted to present an exclusive screening of a documentary and a concert dedicated to the rebetika song writer Markos Vamvakaris.”
In its 19th year FESTIVAL HELLENIKA is different from the major Greek Festivals in other major cities of Australia as it is not run by a major Greek community organisation.
The Festival is run by an independent organisation which represents Greek community organisations and regional brotherhoods.
Asked what are the challenges of presenting a Festival which is not aligned with a major community organisation, Stamatiki Kritas replied:
“It is not a challenge; it is an advantage and an opportunity to act as a uniting force as we are the only umbrella organisation with 24 members who are all community based organisations interested in the Arts and culture.”
“We are not only open to participation but we actively invite participation from the Greek and broader community in its entirety.”
As a result FESTIVAL HELLENIKA has been able to form partnerships and collaborations with mainstream art bodies and organisations such as the Adelaide Festival Centre, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the Migration Museum, the Fringe Festival, the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute and other for both one-off and ongoing projects.
The Festival also actively targets second and third generation Greek Australians and actively looks for ways of attracting the young Australian born.
They have invited representative of NUGAS onto the Board so that they can ‘listen to what the second and third generation Greek Australians are interested in,’ said Kritas.
“We always try to present topics and themes that are known to the youth.
For example, our main concert this year MUSIC HELLENIKA, focuses entirely on Women in Greek songs.
The great thing is that the artists who are participating are themselves young women of second and third generation Greek Australians from Adelaide.”
The bottom line for the Festival is simple, according to Kritas: that Festival Hellenika® always supports, nurtures and promotes local artists.
For event information or the full and official programme of the festival please call: Stamatiki Kritas on 0402 072 741 or George Apostolou on 0417 844 140
(source: neos kosmos)
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