OzAsia starts with Moon Lantern Festival
Arts
HEAVY rains over the past three days may have damaged areas of South Australia, but Adelaide’s OzAsia Festival’s 10th year celebration is ready for launch.
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Australia’s largest Asian culture festival begins on Sunday September 18 and continues to October 2, featuring over 330 professional artists and over 400 community artists.
One of these events is the Moon Lantern Festival, which has been a staple part of the OzAsia Festival for the past ten years.
OzAsia Festival Artistic Director Joseph Mitchell says that despite the heavy rain that occurred in Adelaide over the past few days, the set up for the Moon Lantern Festival has not been affected.
“While the rain did slow us down a little bit in setting up the display, we haven’t fallen behind.”
“There were a couple extra days of pre-production that were allocated for set-up which have proven to be useful.”
Although it was announced earlier in the year that the Moon Lantern Festival was being pushed back a day, the decision has worked out in the Festival’s favour.
“The projected forecast for Sunday is looking to be a clear and sunny day, which benefited us in having to push the Moon Lantern Festival back because of Saturday night’s football match with the Crows.”
Mitchell is also positive of the numbers of attendees for the Moon Lantern Festival Sunday night September 18, which is expected to reach around the 40,000 mark.
“With the festival being outside, we’re quite capable of accommodating up to 40,000, and we can probably have a few more if need be.”
A 40-person-long Hong Kong Dragon lantern will lead a procession of another 20 huge lanterns through parkland in the centre of Adelaide.
Ticket sales for OzAsia shows have been positive, with three of the major performances being close to selling out.
Phare Circus, Vertigo 20 and Two Dogs have seen the most ticket sales and, according to Mitchell, are exactly what the festival aims to achieve.
“They’ve proven to be very popular shows, but these are the ones that express what the true meaning of the OzAsia Festival is all about,” said Mitchell.
Adelaide Festival Centre CEO Artistic Director and AAPPAC Chairman Douglas Gautier states that an estimated total of around 300,000 people are expected to attend the festival this year.
“The OzAsia Festival has grown from humble origins ten years ago to become a nationally significant and internationally renowned arts and cultural event.”
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