The Perth Festival 2014 lineup has been announced with the annual arts and music festival announcing an eclectic mix for its music programme.
Now entering its 62nd year, the Perth Festival has enlisted an impressive selection of eclectic choices for its 2014 edition, running from the 7th February through to the 1st March.
Perth Festival Artistic Director Jonathan Holloway promises more than 1,000 of the world’s contemporary artists across multiple disciplinary fields will add to “our exploration of what it is to be a 21st Century festival in the remotest and yet most connected capital city in the Southern Hemisphere.”
Among the Perth Festival 2014 programme, which includes Russian theatre, extensive art installations, and even a life-size bouncy castle of Stonehenge, is musical acts running the gamut from indie rock to hip hop, performing across unique venues and glorious, outdoor spaces across the WA capital.
Moody Brooklyn royalty The National will play Perth for one night only, playing at the Belvoir Amphitheatre as the final date of their 2014 Australian Tour, drawing selections from their critically acclaimed discography, including this year’s Trouble Will Find Me.
With their influential rap legacy, Public Enemy are ready to ‘Bring The Noise’ to Perth Festival. Headed to Australia as part of the lineups for Ausse festivals such as Golden Plains and Breath Of Life, the hip hop heroes will play the Chevron Festival Gardens Main Stage with their deathless catalogue of favourites from timeless albums such as Fear Of A Black Planet and It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back.
Also on the Perth Festival 2014 contemporary music lineup are Texan-bred indie-folk rockers Okkervil River, legendary trip-hop pioneer and crate-digging turntablist DJ Shadow, the cinematic, electrically charged indie of Julia Holter, Icelandic composer Olafur Arnalds, razor-sharp art-punks Wire, the Screaming Eagle of Soul Charles Bradley, and a tribute to the Beastie Boys’ legendary Paul’s Boutique album constructed by DJ Food, DJ Cheeba, and DJ Moneyshot.
There’s plenty of great Australian artists to enjoy on the Perth Festival 2014 programme too. Local whiz producer Ta-Ku will present #Together, a showcase for local talent including Zeke, Kit Pop, Cosmo Gets (Live), and Sable.
There’s also Melbourne alt-folk quartet Husky, electro songstress Owl Eyes teaming up in a show with USA’s Daughn Gibson, Canyons and dynamic visual artist presenting 100 Million Nights, and psych-rock faves Pond topping a local bill featuring AAA Aardvark Getdown Services, Felicity Groom, The Silents, and DJ Lady Carla.
Also on the Perth Festival 2014 lineup is modern soul legend Booker T Jones, along with American songstress Madeleine Peyroux, Ireland’s folk infusing Atlan, the boundary breaking Ebony Bones, recent Dew Process signee Mikhael Paskalev, and Canadian six-piece Austra, who will deliver their unique dance-inflected brand of moody electronica and indie.
Famed Grammy Award winning pianist/composer Robert Glasper will be performing an impeccable mix of hip-hop, jazz, and RnB as the Robert Glasper Experiment, joined by soul-jazz pioneer Roy Ayers for Perth Festival 2014 in a special live showcase
Closing the Perth Festival will be Between The Desert and the Deep Blue Sea, A Symphony For Perth, which sees the Perth International Arts Festival curators encouraging the city’s populace to record and send in their personal ‘sounds of Perth’ in the months leading up to the event.
The work will be crafted by Tod Machover and played live for the first time by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in an epic, interactive musical feast on the Festival’s closing night.
Other highlights of the Perth Festival 2013 music programme for classical music lovers include Ballet At The Quarry, featuring a Radiohead-inspired reworking of Romeo + Juliet, Verdi’s opera Otello, performed by the West Australian Opera with guests from the Cape Town Opera Chorus, as well as performances from St Martin in the Fields Orchestra, the Klemen Quartet, composer and pianist Ludovici Einaudi, plus much more.
There’s also extensive arts, theatre, dance, visual arts, as well as the Perth Writers Festival and Lotterywest Festival Films to enjoy among the music selections.
For full programme details and further info head to the official Perth International Arts Festival website.
Perth Festival 2014 Lineup
The National
Public Enemy
Okkervil River
Julia Holter
The Basics
Booker T Jones
DJ Shadow
Charles Bradley
Wire
Robert Glasper & Roy Ayers
Madeleiene Peyroux
Olafur Arnalds
Keaton Henson
Mikhael Paskalev
Ebony Bones
Duaghn Gibson
Pond
Ta-Ku
Canyons
Owl Eyes
Altan
Austra
Husky
Ladi6
Homebrew
DJ Food
DJ Cheeba
DJ Moneyshot
+ many more
For the full Contemporary Music program head to http://2014.perthfestival.com.au/Whats-on-by-Genre/Contemporary-Music
Perth Festival 2014 Dates
7th February – 1st March, 2014
Perth International Arts Festival.com.au
