Features
Australian News 3/14
Womadelaide Gets Funding Boost
The South Australian government has increased its funding support for WOMADelaide, the Adelaide version of the WOMAD festival.
It will increase its spend from this March’s $600,000 to $800,000 next year when it celebrates its 50th birthday.
The festival also signed with WOMAD for the Aussie event to run “indefinitely.”
Wheatley Returns To Stage
Glenn Wheatley made a triumphant return to the stage after a year in jail for tax avoidance.
The artist manager made a keynote address at the Fuse Festival in Adelaide March 5.
Wheatley urged the young crowd of mostly aspiring musicians to never be afraid to take risks.
He recounted his own battles, from making and losing his first fortune at 17, having 12 record labels reject Little River Band, to bankruptcy, to “listening to spectacularly stupid” advice from his tax adviser that sent him in jail.
Short Notes
Byron Bay’s Bluesfest will celebrate its 20th birthday over Easter with the new InDIG stage, to showcase Australian and Southern Pacific Rim Indigenous heritage. The 17 acts include Australia’s Christine Anu, Archie Roach & Ruby Hunter and Dan Sultan, the Pacific Island’s Te Vaka and Indonesia’s Tommee. Bluesfest owner Peter Noble is a longtime indigenous rights supporter and helped set up the Aboriginal Artists Agency in 1972.
An application to start a new nightclub called Diamond Club in Hobart created a backlash from residents and church officials. Entrepreneur Colin Essen stated in his application the club was a latenight hang-out for over-30s. But protesters say that Essen, who ran a strip club until it was closed down, is trying to set up a strip club in disguise. Part of the anger is that the club is situated next to a church.
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