Music Scene - Changes Afoot for Music Lovers
With the announcement of Under the Southern Stars last month, the first festival with international headliners since the whole COVID crisis brought the industry to a grinding halt, it feels like things might slowly BE creeping back to normal.
March will see the introduction of a day on the green’s Cellar Door Series. Developed by Roundhouse Entertainment, the team behind Australia’s iconic outdoor Summer concert series, A Day on the Green launch the new intimate series with the multi-talented musical maestro, singer-songwriter Ben Folds, in the Hunter Valley on Saturday, March 20.
Ben Folds is widely regarded as one of our generation's major music influencers and certainly one of its most compelling live performers. He's created an enormous body of genre-bending music that includes pop albums with Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums, and numerous collaborative records. He’s spent decades making heartfelt, quirky and passionate pop.
Also set to fill Newcastle with both the interesting and the unusual is the annual Newcastle Fringe Festival. Having also been forced into hiatus in 2020, it's a joy to see the festival return.
With an eye to COVID restrictions and a need to be flexible, there are significant changes afoot. Now presenting more than 100 events throughout 11 venues, Newcastle Fringe will include film and an emerging filmmakers’ competition, workshops for kids, adults and performers, Binge Newy Fringe and streaming on demand. There truly is something in our fringe line-up for everyone – from burlesque to the theatre, side spitting comedy to magic, creative cabaret to kids' stuff, classical to jazz, the 2021 Newcastle Fringe has it all.
March 20 is a day to glam up your reading experience with Rainbow Families Storytime at Newcastle Library with Newcastle's very own Timberlina. A special glitter-filled Storytime extravaganza where families are invited to join in for an all-singing, dancing and storytelling celebrating our city’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.
If the kids are getting restless as the school holidays draw ever closer, The 91 Storey Treehouse might be just the show for the whole family. On March 1 and 2, The team behind the 13-, 26-, 52- and 78-Storey Treehouses Live on-Stage return with a fantastical trip through this wild, weird and wonderful world for children 6-12 and their adults. Just beware of the fortune teller.
The treehouse is now more fantastically dangerous than ever, with a deserted desert island, a whirlpool and a giant spider! But Andy, Terry and Jill have no idea they’re about to face their biggest challenge yet! Mr Big Nose has sent his grandchildren to the Treehouse, and they don’t want to just sit quietly. Can Andy, Terry and Jill master this extreme babysitting challenge? What does mysterious fortune teller Madam Know-It-All really want? And will the Big Red Button really destroy the world?
Ocean Alley has announced new COVID-Safe shows in Newcastle for the summer. March 27 will see the psychedelic-surf-rockers at Newcastle’s Civic Theatre, with local supports to be announced. It will be the band’s first headline shows in these cities since 2018, as well as the first-time local audiences can experience Ocean Alley’s ARIA-nominated third album Lonely Diamond in the flesh.
