Wollongong Fringe Festival

Wollongong Fringe Festival

Only a few more sleeps until the Wollongong Fringe Festival kicks off this Friday September 22, with the nine-day event celebrating Wollongong's thriving cultural scene, taking all the hidden gems and wealth of talent in the area and wrapping it into one electric week of arts, education and culture.

To wet your appetite just that little bit more, today the Fringe Festival announces its full program for 2017 which includes a vast array of exhibitions, films and interactive workshops to sink your teeth into, wrapping it all up with the Yours & Owls Festival. For all you fringe freaks out there (and soon-to-be-converted), we thought we would give you a sneak peek at a few of the incredible nights that are on offer to you including a VR art battle, a secret lounge room session with surprise artists and a Planetarium experience featuring a projection of the wonders of the world with a live performance of the score.

Why not make a holiday out of The Fringe Festival and get lost in Wollongong? There are plenty of incredible accommodation options throughout the city for everyone's taste and budget, from hostels, romantic beachside B&B's to leisure resorts, Wollongong's got you! For accommodation options visit Destination Wollongong.

For ticketed events and further info visit www.wollongongfringefestival.com.au

I'M WITH THE BAND: MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHY MASTERCLASS WITH CHRIS FRAPE
Thursday 21st of September - UOW Uni Bar
Tickets available via Moshtix
Legendary local photographer Chris Frape has behind the lens and in front of most local and international artists that have made their way in to the town of Wollongong. In this masterclass he will be instilling his knowledge and wisdom on how to capture movement, sound and energy of live music through awesome live photos. BYO Camera!
Bonus points: Admission to this class includes entry to Meg Mac's show at Uni Bar that evening

STRAWBERRY BOOGIE X FRINGE FESTIVAL w/ FLOWERTRUCK // MUTO // SUNSCREEN // JOHNNY HUNTER
Thursday 21st of September - Moving Mountains Gallery
Tickets available via Moshtix
Strawberry Boogie - str b( )ri/ bu i/ 1. 'A celebration of local creative culture'
Strawberry Visions & St O'Donnell are bringing a special edition of Strawberry Boogie for the Wollongong Fringe Festival in a one-off location, Moving Mountains Gallery.

For anyone who hasn't attended a Boogie before, the aim is to celebrate the melting pot of creativity that exists within the local Wollongong realm. Giving a platform to exhibit these art forms in front of like-minded rabble, the crew behind Boogie have welcomed everything from live art, cinematography, visual mixing and independent fashion to interactive concept installations.

What's equally as important, is bringing music from all around Australia and delivering it locally, putting these bands in front crowds that deserve an audience, but the word might be a little slow getting out so far.

Bringing the tunes to this very special edition will be local artists MUTO // Flowertruck // Sunscreen // Johnny Hunter. The full live creative line-up to be announced!

DEAD HANDS DIG DEEP
Friday 22nd of September - ITAMS Theatre, NSW
Tickets available via Moshtix
2016 doco Dead Hands Dig Deep follows the story of thirty-eight year old Edwin Borsheim, known for his bizarre stage antics and brutal self-mutilation as part of the band Kettle Cadaver, years after the band's demise. Borsheim has fallen in to complete seclusion on his acre of land in which he is surrounded by many of the horrible things he has created. As Edwin spirals further in to a hole of drug abuse and self-destruction, those closest to Borsheim dissect his mental complexes as he himself reflects on his dark past.

The Hollywood Reporter called it 'a haunting study of depravity' and the film has screened at several film festivals including Slamdance Film Festival, Fantasia International Film Festival, Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival, Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival and Sydney Underground Film Festival.

WEIRD SCIENCE
Friday 22nd of September - Wollongong Planetarium, Science Centre, Innovation Campus
Tickets available via Moshtix
For the first time ever, the crew behind the experimental Moon Beach Preview in 2016, will be premiering their brand new vid Weird Science at the Science Centre! Experience the wonders of the universe through the lens of Dave Fox and James Kates. The fish eye film has been specially adapted for full dome projections and features scores by Russell W and Jon Watts to be performed live.
Weird Science is proudly supported by Wollongong City Council Cultural Services

FAR NORTH STARRING BEN PLAYER
Saturday 23rd of September - Innovation Campus UOW
Tickets available via Moshtix
3 x World Bodyboarding champion Ben Player has dedicated 5 years of his life to making Far North, a 40-minute film and cinematic experience unlike any other. Filmed in 4k, with an original score by the talented Mickey Smith, the movie takes the viewer on an epic journey. The vast natural beauty of winter in the Far North, is juxtaposed with the ugly and serious danger that Ben faces as he searches for the limitations of his body and skill. Far North offers a dramatic insight into how much an athlete is willing to risk in search of ultimate success. This is so much more than just a body boarding film!

CAVEAU NATIVE & WILD INGREDIENT DINNER
Tuesday 26th of September – Caveau
Tickets available via Moshtix
In conjunction with Yours & Owls Fringe Festival's Aboriginal Culture Day and Bush Tucker Tour, where you can get involved with weaving workshops using locally available materials and cooking classes which utilize techniques carried down for generations, Caveau are offering up a 5-course dinner, showcasing native and wild ingredients. An award winning fine dining restaurant, Caveau has been awarded a hat by the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide every year since 2005.

USELESS WOODEN TOYS – EXHIBITION OPENING
Wednesday 27th of September - Howlin' Wolf Bar Tickets available via Moshtix
Head along to the exhibition opening of more than 25 used skateboard decks, painted by a range of local artists. The boards will all be auctioned off on the night with proceeds going to local charity. There will be a special guest auctioneer, Music Farmer DJ's and door prizes from Kingpin, as well as Howling Wolf's infamous range of beverages.

ENOUGH SAID AUSTRALIAN POETRY SLAM HEAT
Thursday 28th of September - Jane's
Tickets available via Moshtix
If you fancy yourself a bit of a wordsmith or just feel like giving it a go because YOLO, Enough Said Poetry Slam is the slamily for you! You have the freedom to share your poems/words/stories/etc, listen to other people share theirs, click for your favs and maybe even win a prize! For you more serious competitors, this will be a wildcard heat for the Australian Poetry Slam (APS), which means we're sending our slam winner to the APS NSW Final in Sydney in October, so some new rules and 2min time limit apply!

SECRET LOUNGEROOM SESSION
Thursday 28th of September - Secret Location
Tickets available via Moshtix
UOW Music Society are excited to bring you our very own 'Secret Loungeroom Session' as a part of the Yours and Owls Fringe Festival '17. With the line-up TBA on the night we've got a few surprises up our sleeves. If you want to find out more you will just have to come along!

KINGSPRAY VR ART BATTLE
Thursday 28th of September - Innovation Campus UOW
Tickets available via Moshtix
Everybody loves VR (virtual reality for those playing at home)…it's a proven fact! So imagine watching on as a whole bunch of artists go head to head in quick rounds to create an art mural in a digital world via VR. Projected on large-scale screens, the audience can also delve into the virtual reality space the artist is working in. This is all achievable by Kingspray, which is a battle-tested VR Graffiti Simulator, with realistic spray, colors, drips, metallics, and more! All the graffiti fun minus the jail time!

-MUSIC AND THE MIND': EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MUSIC AND MENTAL HEALTH
Thursday 28th of September - Arts Precinct
Tickets available via Moshtix
As part of the Wollongong Fringe Festival, Wollongong City Council, APRA-AMCOS, Music NSW and Neami National are teaming up with Yours and Owls to host a series of FREE events that explore the relationship between music and mental health.

The day will begin at the Wollongong Arts Precinct at 2pm with an interactive workshop led by Neami National. This mutual learning workshop explores music as a mental health recovery tool and is open to all, particularly creatives or those in creative industries who are interested in mental health first aid or learning how to navigate the journey of recovery for themselves, family or friends.

In the evening, the 'Music and the Mind' panel hosted by APRA-AMCOS and Creative Dialogues will bring together musicians who have a lived mental health experiences, people working in the music industry and allied mental health professionals to discuss the links between music, the music industry and mental health. The panel will be held at Wollongong Art Gallery with doors at 6pm for a 6:30pm start. Following the panel, live music from local artists will go until late.
SONGWRITING WORKSHOP WITH BEC SANDRDIGE + POP UP PERFORMANCE
Saturday 30th of September - Moving Mountains Gallery
Tickets available via Moshtix
Spaghetti Disco Pop Wonder Bec Sandridge returns to her home-town to wow crowds at the Yours & Owls Festival + U18's Festival, but first, she hosts a special song writing workshop followed by a half hour performance at Moving Mountains Gallery. The last time Wild Rumpus hosted a songwriting workshop with Bec, people said it was "the best two hours of my life!" Bring a riff, a line, a lyric, an instrument and your A Game for this joyful exploration of music and the craft of song writing.

UOW BIG IDEAS FESTIVAL
Wednesday 4th of October - UOW Great Hall
Tickets available via Moshtix
The UOW Big Ideas Festival is a showcase of the University's ground-breaking research from their outstanding researchers. This free event for the community will see twelve of UOW's newest Professors present an 8-10 minute talk on their big research idea - on the stage of the University Hall on the main campus of UOW. On top of these educational presentations, there will be a special guest speaker: prominent environmentalist Professor Tim Flannery, as well as interactive research stalls from key University research areas, music and entertainment

YOURS AND OWLS FESTIVAL
September 30 – October 1
Stuart Park, North Wollongong
Tickets from yoursandowls.com.au
The jewel in the Yours and Owls fringe calendar, already on final release ticket sales and on the verge of selling out, this year's line-up boasts Texas titans At The Drive In, electro experimental gods The Presets, multi-platinum Illy, Brissy legends Dune Rats, the metal madness of Northlane, and so many more we don't even have the space to list them all here, check out this link for more details. Need we say more?