Mildura Jazz, Food and Wine Festival

For 35 years Mildura have shared with locals, travellers and visitors the best food, wine and jazz the region has to offer. It’s been a long and successful run and things don’t seem to be slowing down, in fact, they’re busier than ever.
“It’s a very busy time at Arts Mildura,” director of Arts Mildura, Paul Lambeth says.
“We’ve got four festivals on the go at the moment. We’ve got the Mildura Biennale followed closely by the Mildura Jazz, Food and Wine festival.”
What works best with the Mildura Jazz, Food and Wine Festival is that they realise the gem of a town that they’re in. The river, the paddle boat steamers and wineries; it’s all one of a kind and unique to Australia.
“It’s just about recognising what you’ve got,” he says.
“Mildura has the river, the climate, the nights are much warmer than anywhere else even people coming in from Adelaide comment that it’s much warmer at night.”
Harnessing the warmer climate comes with the Saturday night of the festival where Langtree Avenue in the town centre is closed off to traffic, but opened to celebrations, fun and festivities.
“My first year here I’d only been in the job for a few weeks and I got to enjoy the full experience of the festival. Most of the work had been done by the existing arts director and staff so I walked into something that was pretty well set up,” he says.
“I enjoyed that one because I sat down in Langtree Avenue, the street that we close off, and I love that it’s known amongst locals as ‘Feast Street’. It’s a great term and Feast Street comes alive from after work really right through and I love the fact that the Mildura community come out and take part in this event.
“People are getting exposed to music as much as they are a get together with other people. You put a couple thousand people in a closed off street under a starry night and you put live music out there and it’s a pretty simple recipe that just works. Music is the element, the thing that brings the space alive.”
The festival has been known for bringing acts from Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney to the weekend, and this year sees the Nicky Crayson Trio from Sydney with many more yet to be announced.
Part of the joy for the festival is being able to bring these bands from interstate to Mildura, but what’s more important is the experience it gives to listeners and how it brings them together.
“I love the contemporary interpretations of jazz – it can almost be anything,” Paul says.
“Traditional aficionados may object to that view but like all music genres it evolves. In relation to this particular festival few people alive don’t respond well to live music of this kind. For me as director of Arts Mildura it’s about bringing people together in this context in a friendly environment.”
With everything coming together for punters, the thing Paul looks forward to most is being able to sit down and enjoy the atmosphere with everyone else, perhaps even jumping on a paddle steamer to catch some music.
“I actually look forward to the day where I can actually sit down and enjoy it as a patron,” he adds with a laugh.
Written by Amanda Sherring
When & Where: Mildura – October 30 – November 2