Stars of festival revealed at launch

The program for the 2014 Great Southern Festival was revealed at a launch in Albany recently.

This year marks the 12th year the festival has been held in the region, a spin-off of the Perth International Arts Festival.

This year it has been shortened to nine days instead of three weeks as in previous years.

Among the highlights are theatre production An Iliad, soul music legend Booker T Jones, Celtic music group Altan, The Cello and an exhibition by Mix Artists.

PIAF artistic director Jonathan Holloway said the cramming of events into a shorter period would create a more festival-like atmosphere.

PIAF general manager Julian Donaldson said he was delighted by the new program.

“It has enormous variety and is something there for everybody with a wonderful balance between free and paid and between theatre and music,” he said.

Mr Donaldson tips Playmakers The Cello as one of the highlights of the festival.

“The cello is the absolute star of the music program as well as some enormously popular performances by Booker T Jones and Altan at two different locations which will really attract a broad audience,” Mr Donaldson said.

He said the festival board had received a high level of community support.

“One of the great things about our festival is that we really dig deep into the Albany community and receive terrific support from Southern Lights, from donors, from the Albany business community and all the different venues from Denmark all the way through to Borden,” Mr Donaldson said.

“We get the opportunity to present in people’s backyards, which is a terrific thing to be able to do.”