The Sidney Myer Music Bowl played host to a crowd of over 7,000 on Saturday for the spectacular closing night celebration of this year’s record breaking Melbourne Festival. Now in its 26th year, the Festival can announce its highest ever box office income of $2.8 million, exceeding the previous record of $2.7 million in 2010.
This year’s Melbourne Festival encompassed a theme of protest, politics and revolution, the coming together of people to achieve something good. Never has a theme been so appropriate as three generations came together as one voice to regale with songs of love, hope and inspiration in Notes From The Hard Road And Beyond.
Russian art collective, AES+F’s iconic 'Angels-Demons. Parade' unequivocably provided Melbourne with the photo opportunity of the decade with thousands of tourists and Melburnians stopping to take in these seven giant sculptures over the 17 day Festival. This free public art brought Melbourne Festival to the streets and over 800,000 people enjoyed the arresting spectacle.
Sold out and acclaimed shows were a continuous theme of this year’s Festival with many international and Australian artists playing to packed out theatres and halls nightly including Kronos Quartet’s Sun Rings as well as the Kronos Quartet Concert, The Border Project’s Half Real, Double Think at Artshouse, ANAM’S Quartetthaus, BalletLab’s Aviary, Okkervil River’s Will Sheff and Japanese band Mono and Congolese band Konono No.1.
Artistic Director, Brett Sheehy said: “I could not be more thrilled with the outcome of this year’s Festival. For me personally, it was the happiest I’ve had the privilege to present. I loved that Melbourne engaged with what may have been the most culturally diverse program yet presented to it, with a record box office – our third record in a row.
“To open an Australian festival with epic, sell-out productions from India and Japan (The Manganiyar Seduction and Mono) as well as the first contemporary drama from China (Rhinoceros In Love), says great things about our engagement with our geographic region.
“I also loved Melbourne’s fondness for ‘the Babies’ (Angels-Demons). Unquestionably, this project has had the greatest impact of any public artwork in our city’s history. Having the suite of seven sculptures down the spine of the city – Swanston Street and St. Kida Road – guaranteed hundreds of thousands of Melburnians and tourists encountered and engaged with them. I will certainly miss them!"