Featuring over 400 artists working on 80 acts and installations – from the playful to the ethereal, the thought provoking to the downright jaw-dropping – the arts play a fundamental role in the skin-tingling, head-spinning sensation that is Harvest
With a sideways glance, you enter BOOTLEG ALLEY, the upside-down landscape of guilty pleasures and happily lost innocence, home to alt-performance palace LE BOUDOIR, where international guests make their Australian premieres and local stars ravage and delight their fellow citizens. Bootleg Alley is a warren of deliciously unexpected sideshows and a haven for immersive underworld playgrounds – THE SNUFF BOX (Sydney) and HAPPYLAND™ (Melbourne) – where debauched citizens lure you in and spit you out…and you like it…possibly more than you should.
Setting LE BOUDOIR alight this year, Australia’s very own multi-award winning, buccaneering beefcake heroes, Briefs, freshly laundered from steaming hot performances of their savvy circus-vaudeville mash-up in London, Edinburgh and Dublin. It’s burlesque with balls…finally!
Joining us from abroad for the very first time, to twist our minds and cement a firm place in our hearts, come the part-twisted cabaret, part-biting theatre, part-catwalk freakshow – electropop London sensations Bourgeois & Maurice.
Also taking to the Australian stage for the very first time, for those who like their burlesque both brilliant and stupid, are the multi-award winning Coney Island idols, Trixie Little and Evil Hate Monkey. Expect trapeze, striptease and shenanigans galore… and, of course, a monkey in a tutu.
Vaudevillage returns to open LE BOUDOIR in all cities, in a funky Frankenstein variety mash-up, curated by The Campfire Collective, with performances from (among many others!): Nick Coyle, Smart Casual, Shane Matheson (Sydney); Randy the Puppet, One Trick Pony, Ryan Coffey, Anne Edmonds (Melbourne); Mel Buttle, Nerida Waters and Skills in Time (Brisbane); with John Conway as Vaudevillage host in each city.
Watch out! Guaranteeing some heart-stopping moments, The League of Sideshow Superstars (All Cities) will break new ground with world-first stunts and eye-popping sideshow routines in this superhuman extravaganza.
To round out LE BOUDOIR, each state will have its own floor-stompin’ finale. In Melbourne, part crooner, part ringmaster, part beast possessed, Mikelangelo presents two evenings of devilish sultry entertainment, with special guests The Tin Star on Saturday night and The Woohoo Revue on Sunday. Sydney will see the tent-shakin’ return of Juke Baritone and The Swamp Dogs with their dark cocktail blend of trapeze punk, gypsy jazz and pirate blues mayhem. Last but not least, ye olde Brisbane town will be privy to a marauding musical concoction reminiscent of a lusty Halloween knees-up in a south sea pirate shanty when Rapskallion hijack the ship.
Deep in the underbelly of Bootleg Alley lie the anarchic, demented immersive playgrounds – THE SNUFF BOX (Sydney) and HAPPYLAND™ (Melbourne). Part mind-melting art installation, part shonky performance space, part frenzied futuristic fairground, these very special secret spaces are hosted by The Glitter Militia (Sydney) and Sideshow and United Carnival Attractions (Melbourne). Seek them out…if you dare!
Meanwhile, nestled in a lush natural amphitheatre, THE SECRET GARDEN is a blissful holistic world, brimming with a thousand delights. Enter the archway to find two more tantalising stages…
Lose yourself in shots of spoken word, theatre, comedy, dance, discussion and more at THE CAMPFIRE STAGE (Melbourne / Sydney only) where you can be tickled by the sell-out hit of the Sydney Writers Festival, Erotic Fan Fiction; be fiddled with by master fiddler and story teller Aindrias de Staic; be enlightened by lycra during The Mighty Nineties Power Hour (Melbourne only) and uplifted by brilliant stories and unforgettable characters in the ATYP Voices Project (Sydney only).
The Campfire Stage will also play host to the chuckle-tastic Comedy Picnic, featuring such masters of mirth as Lessons with Luis, Felicity Ward, David Quirk, Anne Edmonds (Melbourne), Gen Fricker, Rhys Nicholson, Shane Matheson and Cameron James (Sydney).
Fancy a boogie? Head over to THE GARDEN STAGE (all states), where hand-picked DJs will sooth your soul and electrify your limbs with vinyl dreams and uplifting scenes of funk, reggae, electro, disco and soul. Featuring the best DJs from the underground club scenes along with surprise sets from very special guests.
HEAD HERE FOR THE FULL ARTS LINE UP
http://www.harvestfestival.com.au/arts/overview
FULL MUSIC LINE UP:
Beck, Sigur Ros, Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane, Grizzly Bear, Ben Folds Five, Silversun Pickups, Beirut, Santigold,
Cake, The Dandy Warhols, Dexys, The Black Angels, Chromatics, Crazy P, Ozomatli, Liars, Fuck Buttons, Los Campesinos!,
The War on Drugs, Dark, Dark Dark, River City Extension, Dark Horses and Winter People.
HARVEST DATES AND TICKETS;
Sat 10th Nov – Melbourne, Werribee Park
Sun 11th Nov – Melbourne, Werribee Park SOLD OUT
Sat 17th Nov – Sydney, Parramatta Park
Sun 18th Nov – Brisbane, City Botanic Gardens
