TIME TO CELEBRATE… The organising committee of the Arts Revival Festival hope the festival will bring cheer back into the community. They are on stage in the Little Theatre (L-R) Lisa Ramsay, Deb Jones, Kerryn Jones, Margot Jolly (front), Roxanne Gallagher, Neil Westcott and Elsie Mahon.
An inspirational and uplifting event is planned for the Parkes Shire community to end the year with some cheer and joy.
The Arts Revival Festival will take place from Monday, 14th to Saturday, 19th December with a full program including art and craft workshops, three one act plays, an art exhibition, a craft market and various musical performances.
“It is an opportunity to revive, celebrate and foster artistic activity in our local community and use the arts to inspire and uplift people in these troubled times,” said spokesperson Lisa Ramsay. The event is being organised by the Parkes Shire Arts Advisory Council and Parkes M&D Society.
“It is all about local art and craft in our Shire. Following the drought, fires, floods and the COVID pandemic, we felt it was necessary to support the arts and encourage people to have something to work towards to see a revival of the arts.”
“There were so many events cancelled or cut short this year. With this festival we hope to raise everyone’s spirit.”
Lisa said the festival was for Shire residents with COVID safe plans in place for all events.
Artists from all over the Shire will be taking part in the exhibition that will run for the whole festival at the Coventry Room at the Parkes Library. The brand new Makerspace venue at the newly renovated library will be used for the first time for the workshops on four of the days.
The Parkes M & D Society is in full swing with the production of the three one act plays. The productions include two adult and one junior play. The two adults plays will be presented as one show and features an Australian version of Anton Chekhov’s one-act farce The Proposal/Wedding. The junior play is Mother Duck and Golden Goose, a fairy tale spoof. There will be five performances of the plays throughout the week. Under COVID rules, the theatre will have 88 seats per performance at 50% capacity.
Musical performances will take place before and after the plays at the Parkes Little Theatre, including an hour performance by popular local group Amitie on Saturday. The theatre carpark will also be the venue for the market on Saturday,19th December.
Lisa said the market would be a good opportunity to purchase some locally made Christmas gifts. The Parkes Shire Concert Band and other musicians will be spreading more Christmas cheer at the event with performances throughout the day.
Member of the organising committee Kerryn Jones said the festival was bringing together the cultural precinct idea with the Coventry Room and Makerspace venues and Little Theatre being used. “We hope to make it an annual event and include the new multi-purpose centre being built in Cooke Park in the future too.”
The committee plans to keep ticket prices and workshop costs to the minimum to make the festival accessible to everyone.
Anyone wanting to get involved or needing more information can contact Margot Jolly on 0423 938 145 or margotjolly@bigpond.com.
By Maggi Barnard