OzAsia Festival, the Adelaide-based event celebrating engagement with Asian arts, is encouraging businesses and individuals to support its work through a new fundraising scheme.
It’s hoped the OzAsia Festival Fund will help safeguard the future of the festival, an annual two-week event organised by the Adelaide Festival Centre.
Organisers are targeting potential investors who do business in China, as well as private philanthropists who are eager to build stronger ties with Asia.
Douglas Gautier, CEO of Adelaide Festival Centre, said: ‘To further enhance the festival’s standing within the community both here and overseas, the establishment of the OzAsia Festival Fund will be instrumental in growing the festival and increasing its innovation and positioning of Australia positively in the Asian century.
‘The funds raised will contribute directly to enhancing the festival which is a great vehicle for building social cohesion and cultural harmony, as well as bolstering business, cultural, educational and diplomatic links between Asia and Australia.’
OzAsia focuses on a different Asian region each year; this year’s festival will focus on Adelaide’s sister state, Shandong.
It’s also been announced that Red Sorghum, a production by Qingdao Song and Dance Theatre Company, will receive its Australian premiere at this year’s festival. Adapted from the novel by Shandong’s Nobel Prize-winning author Mo Yan, the work reflects the artistic traditions of the region in a tale of resistance against Japanese occupation.
This year’s programme will also feature a performance of Tan Dun’s Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women. The full line-up will be announced in June.
OzAsia Festival runs from 5-21 September.
Photo: Tan Dun’s Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women was one of the first shows to go on sale for the 2014 OzAsia Festival.
