Travelers heading to Sydney, Australia, later this month are in for a creative treat. Volume is a new and unique festival of music, film and performance. From Sept. 22 through Oct. 8, Volume Festival will take place at The Art Gallery of New South Wales. The festival will take over several spaces throughout the gallery’s North and South buildings on Gadigal Country.
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and multidisciplinary artist Solange will headline the festival. Award-winning Zambian musician, vocalist and rapper Sampa The Great also is scheduled to perform. Additional performances include American songwriter and producer Mount Eerie, Dharawal and Inuit contemporary musician Sonya Holowell and more.
The 17-day festival brings together trailblazing musicians, boundary-pushing filmmakers and cutting-edge performers in Sydney. Its diverse programming includes more than 50 music, film and performance events, including free and ticketed programming day and night.
Volume Festival’s ticketed music program includes 27 local and international artists. In addition to headlining performances, the live music line-up features an array of artists from around the world. Experience the sounds of artists from the United States, Canada, the Phillippines, Japan, Iran, South Korea, Germany, Lebanon and Australia.
The festival will also present the world premiere of seven new music recordings by artists Dean Hurley (USA), KMRU (Germany/Kenya), Lea Bertucci (USA), Loraine James (UK), Megan Alice Clune (Australia), R. Rebeiro (Australia), and salllvage (Australia), all commissioned by the Art Gallery.
Each night from Tuesday to Sunday, the Art Gallery’s new North Building will transform into two unique performance spaces. The Tank, once a World War II oil tank, is now a spectacular art space. The Atrium and sculpture gallery spaces also will serve as an immersive experience for creative performances. By day, the North and South buildings will offer free live music, performances and workshops.
Art Gallery of New South Wales director Michael Brand said Volume is a unique chance to experience an internationally acclaimed art museum as never before.
“While the visual arts have traditionally been the Art Gallery’s focus, our expansion, through the Sydney Modern Project, has created an exceptional opportunity for us to extend our programming as part of our new curatorial narrative to include more cutting-edge live music, film, and performance,” Brand said. “Volume is the manifestation of this vision.”
The eclectic music program is curated by Jonathan Wilson, the Art Gallery’s and Australia’s first music and community curator. Attendees will enjoy new and experimental live music, genre-bending pop artists, collaborations and world-premiere site-specific commissions.
“As a festival program, Volume presents an immense opportunity to engage with some of the world’s most expansive musicians and filmmakers. As the music and community curator at the Art Gallery of NSW, the work has always been about bringing people together –musicians, performers, and makers– and inviting them into our new Gallery spaces to create,” Wilson shares with Travel Noire. “Solange, Sampa The Great, Joe Rainey, Maissa Alameddine, and Sonya Holowell to name just a few of the performers, are all artmakers. For Volume, they will all be pushed to the foreground of the contemporary art scene; their performances will be deep, connected, and important. I hope it shifts thinking and changes the context in how we define music culture in art institutions in the 21st century.”
The ticketed music program includes Play the Room, an experiential live music performance series featuring solo, duo and group performances. Playback will feature local and international contemporary composers creating new scores to be played and experienced during the festival.
A broader program of free music, film and creative performances also is available for lovers of the arts. This includes moving image works curated by Art Gallery of NSW film curator Ruby Arrowsmith-Todd. Dance performances will be curated by Art Gallery of NSW curator of contemporary art Lisa Catt.
The NSW Government proudly supports Volume through Create NSW’s Blockbusters Funding initiative and strategic sponsor Destination NSW. Tickets are currently on sale, ranging between $55 and $199, at volume.sydney.