The spicing up of Parramatta
Oz’s first-ever festival of South Asian Arts Parramasala will be held in NSW from Nov 4-8.
Come November and Sydney’s diaspora hotspot Parramatta – home to the country’s largest resident Indian community – will be transformed into a stunning display of South Asia’s rich culture.
Taking Australia-India cultural relationship to a new level, Parramasala, Australia’s first-ever Festival of South Asian Arts, will be held in Sydney from 4 to 8 November.
The new international arts festival will bring together a mind-expanding confluence of cultural backgrounds, artistic ideas and innovative collaborations from today’s most celebrated, contemporary artists working across music, dance, theatre, film and visual arts. Colourful, uplifting and inclusive, this is a festival for arts lovers of all ages and interests, with a rich program of free and festival-exclusive ticketed events.
Parramasala will feature music stars Kailash Kher and Nitin Sawhney, and Carnatic music icon Guru Kaaraikkudi Mani. The program also includes dance performances like kathak and American tap, contemporary music improvisors, DJs, and traditional Rajasthani folk arts.
While the inaugural Festival of South Asian Arts will focus on Indian arts and music, later festivals will be broader and include arts from other South Asian countries, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan.
“The South Asian diaspora has enriched communities across the globe, including the culturally diverse city of Parramatta,” Parramasala CEO and Artistic Director Philip Rolfe said. “It is important that our program reflects that diversity.”
“This first festival will be an exciting beginning to what will become one of the world’s most unique international arts events, and you can expect the scope and scale of the festival to grow in coming years,” Mr Rolfe said.
The festival will be an annual event in the country’s culture calendar, he added.
Parramasala is a new festival on the NSW Master Events Calendar. It was created by the NSW Government through Events NSW in conjunction with Parramatta City Council and the Indian community.
“In addition to the wide range of international concerts, dance and theatre productions to choose from, we are encouraging everyone to make a weekend of it in Parramatta by immersing themselves in the daily free entertainment on the streets and community events,” Mr Rolfe said:
As part of the festival, an entire street in Parramatta will be converted to resemble a ‘bustling Indian bazaar’. The vibrant Masala Night Market will be launched on opening night, November 4, by MasterChef ’s Jimmy Seervai.
Under the trees, various outdoor dining areas along Parramatta’s Church Street will be serving delicious treats from Sri Lanka, Nepal and India, including freshly squeezed sugar cane juice and authentically brewed masala tea. Everything from cinnamon to saris will be on offer at this bustling street market. From late afternoon each day of the festival, the central thoroughfare of Church Street will be transformed into a living canvas of light, sound, colour, flavour and fragrance. As the sun sets, dazzling lighting and building projection effects will transform the street into a vibrant streetscape where the cross-roads of South Asia will collide.
Free performances on the outdoor stages will include the world renowned Australian percussion duo, Dva, a beautiful roving elephant puppet created by Erth, traditional caste musicians from the Indian state of Rajasthan, as well as a wide range of local South Asian dance and music artists including tabla and sitar musicians Yama Sarshar and his father Ustad, classical Hindi singer Archna Goswani, Ruchi Sanghi Dance Academy, Sankha Ridman Dance Ensemble, Thrayee School of Dance and many more.
Innovative UK-based arts company MotiRoti will also be presenting its acclaimed video installation, 60×60 Secs. Sixty fascinating one-minute films from UK, India and Pakistan will be screened on loop in the nearby Parramatta City Library.
The Masala Nights experience on Church Street will continue on November 5 and November 6.
Festival highlights include Sufi singer Kailash Kher with his band Kailasa, 1929 silent film A Throw of Dice with live music by UK musician Nitin Sawhney, The Chennai Tapes (a superb concert of improvisation and collaboration by Paul Grabowsky’s Australian Art Orchestra and India’s Sruthi Laya Ensemble, Desert Wedding (the traditional music of Rajasthan), The Guru of Chai (a comedy by NZ-based Indian Ink Company), Tap Kathak (a jugal bandhi featuring India’s kathak dance master Pandit Chitresh Das with award-winning American tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith), bharatanatyam dance presentation A Million Eyes (featuring Anandavalli in collaboration with contemporary Indian musicians Anil Srinivasan and Sikkil Gurucharan), Nitin Sawhney’s Soundsystem, stand-up comedy Masala Ha!, Twenty20 Cricket and the annual Deepavali Fair at Parramatta Stadium, and a series of Masterclasses for the performing arts events (details at www. wsda.org.au)
Tickets for all Parramasala events are now on sale at www.parramasala.com.
