Get a taste of everything from music to dance, film, arts, food, fashion, crafts, science and more, at the much-awaited George Town Festival which is back to fascinate everyone for the seventh year now!
Taking place at the end of this month, the festival for this year will be even bigger than before, featuring more fun and exciting activities, educational talks and programmes, famous personalities and artistes, and also spectacular performances!
The one-month long festival will have a two-day “A+SEAN Showcase” offering a fun mix of fashion, arts and culture on the opening weekend of 30 and 31 July 2016 at the Penang Esplanade, AKA Padang Kota Lama.
The highlight of the event would be a music concert featuring some of the hottest regional artistes from ASEAN countries, including Indonesian band Nidji, Malaysian “Queen of Jazz” Sheila Majid, rising YouTube star Raisa Adriana, hip-hop artistes Joe Flizzow and SonaOne, rock bands Bittersweet, OAG and Ocean of Fire, as well as female song birds Dasha Logan and Bihzhu.
Also, be sure to catch the inspirational talk given by Cambodian film director Rithy Panh whose seminal work “The Missing Picture” gained top prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was also nominated at the 86th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
His talk will be a part of “Stories, Humanity and What About The Arts?” talk series, which will also feature co-founder of the iconic Burning Man Festival, Larry Harvey.
Some other not-to-be-missed highlights at George Town Festival 2016 are:-
•“Smashed”, a sensational mix of circus and theatre presented by the world-renowned jugglers of Gandini Juggling who have performed over 5000 shows in 50 countries.
•“Moved by Padi “, a multi-arts collaborative project depicting a contemporary reinvention of rituals and communal celebrations honouring the spirit of paddy and rice as a source of existence and self, and the performance is led by Malaysia’s leading choreographer and dancer Aida Redza.
•“Triptyque”, a three-part show showcasing an ingenious spectacle where circus acrobatics meet contemporary dance, which was previously presented at the 2012 Academy Awards Ceremony.
•“All that Fall”, a multi-layered composition of voices that can be experienced as a black comedy, a murder mystery, a cryptic literary riddle or a quasi-musical score, which already won two Irish Times Theatre Awards in 2011 for Best Sound and Best Lighting Design, as well as the Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh International Festival 2013.
George Town Festival will take place from 29 July to 30 August 2016.
All of the showcases will be held at different venues across Penang, and at different date and times.
For more information regarding the festival and ticketing prices, visit georgetownfestival.com.