9 December 2011

From Chris Isaak to Clare Bowditch, Enlighten trims down

| johnboy
Join the conversation
10
enlighten screenshot

The Enlighten festival website has been launched for the 2012 event.

In stark contrast to last year they’re downplaying the performers and there has been no helicopter arrival by ageing rock stars.

This is probably a good move. One suspects people will come for the lights and some good music as much as to see well past their prime legends of yesteryear.

UPDATE: Andrew Barr is selling it and making clear that they’re integrating Enlighten with the Canberra Festival this year. Minister Barr says the highlights include:

— Late night viewings of Renaissance: 15th and 16th Century Italian Paintings from the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo at the National Gallery of Australia and Handwritten: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Treasures from Staatsbibliothek Zu Berlin at the National Library of Australia,
— A concert featuring Claire Bowditch and The Clouds at the National Museum of Australia,
— Underground geological tours of Parliament House,
— A bush tucker long table dinner which follows a guided tour with a curator through the indigenous collection at the National Museum of Australia,
— The screening of Lights! Canberra! Action! in the leafy Senate Gardens at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, and
— A night of political comedy at the Museum of Australian Democracy; star gazing at the National Library of Australia and a talk on the science behind beer and wine at Questacon.

Join the conversation

10
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

I-filed said :

That’s a grand total of two items that could be actual highlights. Is there any limit to the obfuscation around festival activities and failed entrepreneurial activities by this inept government?

On the other hand, the activities should be reasonably cheap to run and linking the major tourist attractions in this way is a good idea. Extended opening hours are excellent for tourists as it allows them to pack more into their visit. The program actually looks pretty good to me, and is much more sensible than the very daggy effort they mounted last year.

I’m shocked at how many of these things I genuine want to go to. I think that they’re creative and interesting ideas celebrating the good things we have, and they don’t even involve the necromancy required to inflate Frankie Valli.

It all seems a little predictable to me…

No point star gazing at the library. The light pollution at Parkes is phenomenal. You would be lucky to catch Venus on a clear night.

OK let’s unpack this little PR moment:

“Late night viewings of Renaissance … Ten Centuries of Manuscript Treasures from Staatsbibliothek Zu Berlin at the National Library of Australia” – these are not actually festival activities, so how can they be “highlights of the festival”?
“A concert featuring Claire Bowditch and The Clouds at the National Museum of Australia” – OK, that’s ONE festival activity!
“Underground geological tours of Parliament House” – this is a tacked on “Science Festival” activity, with the science festival dead & gone it was available to be tacked on somewhere. Not a core activity, so hardly a “highlight”.
“A bush tucker long table dinner which follows a guided tour with a curator through the indigenous collection at the National Museum of Australia” – Indigenous collection that’s already there, not a curated collection for the festival. Long table? What, a couple of dozen tickets? Maybe 50 people? How does this qualify as a “festival highlight”?
“The screening of Lights! Canberra! Action! in the leafy Senate Gardens at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House” – you can’t double-up a “highlight” – is this a highlight of its own, as it always has been, and a parallel activity, or actually part of the festival?

A night of political comedy at the Museum of Australian Democracy – OK, festival highlight this qualifies! That makes TWO – though this activity will probably have very limited seating, not what you’d expect as the highlight of a festival for a population of 300,000 plus tourists and visitors … .

“star gazing at the National Library of Australia” “a talk on the science behind beer and wine at Questacon” – more leftover defunct Science Festival activities.

That’s a grand total of two items that could be actual highlights. Is there any limit to the obfuscation around festival activities and failed entrepreneurial activities by this inept government?

p1 said :

In my mind that is an improved line up.

+ a gazillion

clare bowditch is an amazing australian performer.

Waiting For Godot5:17 pm 09 Dec 11

Why are they even bothering? What The Renovators was to television, Enlighten is to festivals. Expensive and unpopular. The only people looking forward to it are the accountants at the gay newspapers in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane which carried heaps of advertising for this year’s failed festival.

In my mind that is an improved line up.

Another flop in the making.

Good of them to check their calendars to make sure there were no clashes with other major ACT government funded music festival initiatives targeting exactly the same demographic.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.