For the fifth year in a row, the You Are Here Festival is about to begin. Running from the Wednesday 18 March to Sunday 22 March, the festival is dedicated to putting a much-needed spotlight on the best of Canberra’s up-and-coming artists. This year, You Are Here is a little shorter than usual – it’s running for five days instead of eleven – in order to dedicate more time and support to the artists involved. But don’t worry! The festival still has a massive program and is jam-packed with dance, theatre, performances, and visual art shows, to name but a few.
Here are some events that I am definitely not going to miss:
If you go to one event during the whole festival, this should be it. Opening Night encompasses everything from the festival that you want to see – theatre, performances, dance, and music – all within walking distance of each other. Meet at The Record Store at 6.00pm, grab a program, and spend your evening wandering the city and discovering art wherever you are.
As an English Major, this sort of thing is my jam. According to the organisers, “Lit Hop is like a bar hop, but better”. In three separate venues you’ll find story-telling, trivia, and games all to do with writing and literature. As you move from spot to spot you’ll meet notable writers and be entertained with all sorts of performances. Lit Hop will start at 6.30pm on the Saturday 21 March at the YAH Club Space (opposite King O’Malley’s).
I’m sure everyone, at some point in their lives has experienced both the challenges and excitements of long-distance communication. Far Flung, an interactive, real time performance, explores these aspects, through dance and live video installation. Three different venues will be linked together by online video conferencing to bring you a performance that I’m sure will intrigue and amaze the audience. I’m so interested to see how they bring all these elements together and make it all work. The performance will take place at the Gorman Arts Centre (B Block Hall) on the Thursday 19 March at 7.00pm.
I love bike riding and I love neon, so it’s almost as if theNeon Night Rider event was made just for me! As the sun goes down on Friday 20 March, join You Are Here on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin for an evening bridge to bridge bike ride full of friends, and fun. Bring yourself and your bike and the team will provide the neon!
Reserving Time
As someone who constantly thinks that I never have enough time in a day to get everything done, I think this event will be quite enlightening to go to. Themed around time, Reserved Time will use reserved parking signs (yes, you did read that correctly) to make the audience question both the idea of having a public space that is reserved, and how that space might be used to start a conversation about the notion of time.
But these aren’t just any parking signs. They’ve been rewritten with a few new ‘instructions’ for the reader, including quotes and messages from the artists own musings. If you’re interested in spending an evening having a bit of self-reflection, then this event is definitely for you.
__________________________
You can check out the rest of the program here, but be warned – once you start reading about them, you’ll want to go all the events!
