COME OUT WRAPS UP FOR ’09!

Come Out ’09 lived up to its reputation of colour, creativity and fun as 100,000 children and young people experienced the surprise and magic of Australia’s biggest multi-arts festival for young people.

Titled Colliding Worlds, Come Out was met with smiles, cheers and wonderment as it engaged with young people across 3 Hubs in: West End, North Terrace and Tandanya.  The Come Out Hubs ensured easy access for schools and families who were exposed to 63 state wide school activities, 170 theatre performances by 350 performers, 14 exhibitions and 16 participatory events.

The Come Out regional touring program added a lively injection of sound, vibrant colour and imagination across the South Australian landscape.  The school touring shows road tripped their way through Mt Gambier, Renmark, Ceduna, Whyalla, Port Pirie, Port Augusta, Port Lincoln, Bordertown, Quorn, Victor Harbour and Roxby Downs, engaging and delighting our country kids.

The Festival state buzzed as theatre-makers from Australia and around the world, hula-hooped, juggled, danced, played and exploded into the lives of children and young people. 

Festival highlights included UK theatre-makers Visible Fictions, whose performance of Jason & the Argonauts was a historical adventure to the end of the world. The energy-fuelled collision between Cirkidz (SA) and Circus Monoxide (NSW) led to the breath taking circus extravaganza Freaky. Commissioned by Come Out, Children’s Cheering Carpet - Saltbush, was a magical sensory journey of Country with Australian Aboriginal artists collaborated with Italian theatre company Compagnia TPO. 

Artistic Director Jason Cross said, “Our aim with Colliding Worlds was to create a diverse multi-arts banquet of visual and performing arts and moving images.  The festival was poetic, bringing artists and their ideas into collision with each other and provoking personal and global perspectives from young people and the general community.”

“Above all else Come Out ’09 was about creating individual and collective memories for the children and young people of South Australia,” Jason Cross said.

The Come Out ’09 festival ran from 18-30 May.  The next Come Out festival is planned for May 2011.