Irresistible Magazine caught the first weekend of Darwin Festival this year. Now, ahead of their final weekend, we look back at the origins of the annual celebration and the great acts we saw up in the Territory.
Darwin Festival has been running since 1979, first named as Bougainvillea Festival, then later Festival of Darwin, taking up it’s current name in 2003. When is started the city was still recovering from the tremendous devastation wrought by Cyclone Tracey, which turned up on Christmas Day 1974, leaving carnage that took years to recover from. The Festival was a beacon of hope and resilience then, and has been an integral part of the city’s cultural life ever since, drawing plenty of local, Australian and international visitors, selling around 50,000 tickets every year.
Headliners over the years have included Archie Roach, Paul Kelly, Hannah Gadsby, Jessica Mauboy, Tim Minchin, Jimmy Barnes, The Cat Empire and Angus & Julia Stone, as well as the NIMA, NATSIAA, NIFA, and DAFF events that intersect with the festival.
2024 is the 50 year anniversary of Cyclone Tracey and to mark the event the Darwin Symphony Orchestra commissioned Gurrulwa Guligi (Big Wind) composed by Senior Larrakia Elder Aunty Bilawara Lee and DSO Composer in Residence Netanela Mizrahi. The work, which featured spoken word alongside music and sound samples from the night of the cyclone, premiered last week as part of the Darwin Festival to great reviews.
Every performance we saw was out in the open air and it was wonderful to be outside under Darwins starry skies and in its balmy evening weather. With just a few days left of the Festival get to it if you can or mark your calendars for next year. Here’s what we saw.
Big Name, No Blankets
See our interview here with Dr. Rachael Maza and Anyupa Butcher, the creators of the show, from earlier in the year. As always, the performances telling the origin story of Warumpi band were energetic and heartfelt, and as we were watching in the Northern Territory, there were plenty of people in the audience who were deeply connected to, and related to, the original band members. Needless to say everyone was on their feet dancing and singing along by the end of the night.
Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers
Although they’re still in their early 20s this tight quartet have been together for nearly a decade, and it shows in how well they perform together and how enthralled the audiences are. The set we saw was loud and funny and high impact, with the band smashing out their rock bangers and having the time of their lives. They’re musical and cohesive and clearly in sync as a group. They’ve done plenty of festivals and have opened for the DMAs and the Foo Fighters. They’re touring the USA for the first time in the next few weeks with shows coming up in New York, Dana Point and L.A. in September and October, before heading back to for the Big Pineapple Festival in Woombie Australia October 19th.
NIMA
We have a whole piece about the night that was the NIMAs. A total highlight of the whole Australian music scene, let alone of everything that is happening in Darwin in August. A creatively curated blend of old and new, traditional, pop, and hardcore hip hop. These bands are ready to take over the world. Deadly.
Jazz Party
Melbourne based Jazz Party did a super show featuring the rich vocals of their lead singer Loretta Miller. A punk edge to a jazz, swing, and rhythm and blues smorgasbord with influences from Fats Waller to Rosalia, Prince to Patsy Cline and David Lynch to Ennio Morricone. Their Sophomore Album is out out now through Remote Control Records and you can catch them at regular gigs in Melbourne and across the country where they’re a festival regular. As the name suggests, a great party and a lots of charisma bouncing off the stage for a jazzy night where everyone is getting into it.
Sayuni Choir
The members of the choir belted out stunning arrangements of gospel music to a crowd that was dancing and loving every minute. “Sayuni” is derived from the Swahili word “Zion,” often associated with a spirituality or religiosity. This fits perfectly with the choir’s roots in Christian worship and gospel music. Based in Darwin, the group brings together members of the African diaspora living in the Northern Territory, particularly those from East African countries like the DRC and Tanzania. It’s a community hub as well as a performance group and an opportunity for its members to spread messages of hope, unity, and faith through their music. They filled the night air tremendously.
Club Awi
‘Awi’ is the Tiwi word for everyone, and every Friday and Saturday night throughout the festival the main stage in the park turns into a club night, the party going on until the early hours. Kuya James has teamed up with Jocelyn Tribe (DemiRep) to form Tangan Collective, and they’ve brought in special guests and deejays from the NT and much further afield to produce a different line up every session. On the nights we were there it was busy, with a cool crowd still turning up gone 1am. It’s a boiler room situation in the big outdoors.
Missy Higgins
Just days before she was induced into the ARIA Hall of Fame, Missy Higgins was at Darwin Festival. So were the fans who queued up and were crazy for her. The show was in two parts, the first included brand-new songs, plus a few fan favourites from early in her career, all played in stripped back, acoustic mode. The second part was tall her classics that the audience know and love accompanied by her full band to perform The Sound of White album in its entirety. The crowd couldn’t have asked for anything more.
Leah Flanagan
Flanagan was opening for Missy Higgins alongside Prayer Corby. Flanagan delivered a deep and heartfelt acoustic set, a soulful voice and a clear musicality with her guitar. Flanagan is from Darwin and her songs are populated with great stories from her own life. A healthy dose of activism was thrown into the show with references to upcoming elections in the Northern Territory and the need to address climate and justice issues. As well as having worked as an arts and music executive,. most recently Flanagan contributed to Midnight Oil’s live band as a backing and featured vocalist for their Resist world tour and collaborator on their ARIA Award winning EP The Makarrata Project.
