Lorne Festival of Performing Arts

Culture will be on full display in the Surf Coast next month when the fourth annual Lorne Festival of Performing Arts kicks off. The event runs from August 29-31 and promises to be a weekend filled with a huge mixture of weird and wonderful performances for all ages.
Festival Director Monique Harvey says the punters will see an eclectic assortment of shows and are sure to enjoy a great few days. “They get to see stuff that they wouldn’t normally have access to. And also, you get to see such a variety of performances in the one place, in a beautiful location – and [it’s] affordable. Rather than paying $40 to see each of these shows, you can buy a weekend pass and you get something like fifteen shows or more for something like five bucks each.
“There’s some really brilliant performances and a real mix, so I just hope that people can come down and let their hair down, bring their families and friends and just have a blast.”
The first of these festivals was held in 2011 as a means to attract greater crowds to the area in the winter period. But since then it has grown enormously and has become a fixture on the Lorne social calendar.
“We kind of had a fairly conservative estimate of about 800 people that first year, which we reached, which was brilliant,” Monique says. “As a result of that we’ve been able to continue on and the festival has built each year to the point that we outgrew our main venue in the second year … It’s building every year, which is brilliant.”
Headline acts for the festival include Mighty Duke & The Lords, Trash Test Dummies, The Little Stevies, Dan Walters Duo, Kate McLennan & Wes Snelling and many more. The performances are held in a number of local venues including the Cumberland Resort, the Grand Pacific Hotel, Cuda Bar, Lorne Theatre and various cafés and restaurants, while there are also a number of free street performances around the town. The main stage will be the Circus Oz Big Top, located at the Mantra Resort on the foreshore.
Monique says the support from the Lorne community has been simply outstanding. “The shopkeepers really look after all the artists over the weekend and make them feel incredibly welcome. We have a huge volunteer crew that are all local. And also, the Friday night cabaret, which is the big opening event, so many locals come out for that night. They come out early and have a drink and party all night long. It’s a blast.”
From musical performances to comedy shows, from burlesque acts to circus antics, from an erotic angle grinding display to a photographic storytelling exhibition, and even the guy who lifts car batteries with his nipples, there’s bound to be something to tickle everyone’s fancy. “That’s what we try to do,” says Monique. “We try and appeal to everyone.”
For more information jump online and visit lovelornefestival.com, where you can purchase tickets and check out a rundown of everything that’s going on over the weekend. And Monique has one very, very simple message for anybody wanting to come along: “Just come and enjoy and have a brilliant weekend.”
When&Where: Lorne, August 29 – 31
Written by Daniel Waight