ArtsHub

Presented at the Brisbane Powerhouse, the Festival is produced by a diverse group of young people, working in conjunction with industry mentors and Brisbane’s Backbone Youth Arts, a cross-artform organization which focuses on performance opportunities for young people aged five to 25. This year’s crop of emerging producers are being mentored by arts industry professionals including Lyndon Terracini, outgoing Chief Executive of the Brisbane Festival; the Queensland Theatre Company’s Bronwyn Klepp; Jody Haines from Brisbane Powerhouse; and Alison St Ledger from the Brisbane Cabaret Festival. Emerging producer and performer Alanna Hankey is the 2high Festival Manager, and heads up the 12-strong team of 20-something-year-olds who are coordinating the Festival this year. “The vision for this year’s 2high Festival is wildly ambitious and intimately engaging; this I believe is the future of the Arts. The 2high Festival model is completely unique in Australia; it’s an absolute must for Brisbane and an outstanding opportunity for our young and emerging artists,” Hankey says. Brisbane-based Travis Dowling is an emerging director and arts worker, and one of the 2high Festival’s two Performance Coordinators. “[The Festival] is about giving young artists and young curators a chance to curate a large-scale festival, an opportunity they wouldn’t get if they were trying to seek out paid work in the industry,” he explains. “It gives us a chance to learn production skills that you could not learn from a university – that you could only get from a hands-on kind of environment – and create a whole festival with them. As well, it gives emerging artists from Australia an opportunity to perform and showcase their work in the beautiful venue that is the Brisbane Powerhouse, and in a professional and safe environment.” The 2high Festival’s team has assembled a potent blend of art, live music, performance, and everything in between for this year’s program, including poet-in-elevator Ryan J. Douglas; live music from bands such as Brisbane four piece My Fiction and indie dance band Two Can Radio; the Creative Renegades forum, which will pose the question ‘What radical changes are needed to make Brisbane an arts city second to none?’; visual exhibitions by Citizen Loud, Danielle Woolbank, Nicola Parsons and others; and performances including the Extreme Team Comedy troupe, and Little Dove Theatre Arts’ award-winning Six Women Standing in Front of a White Wall. “We’ve negotiated around all the hurdles of creating a festival quite well together, I think,” Dowling says of working with fellow Performance Coordinator Daniele Constance. “There’s been a lot of talking and strengthening communication ... so we can learn professional practice while struggling through a process that is very foreign to us.” He is justifiably excited about the end results. “We’ve got a performance called Six Women Standing in Front of a White Wall which is a fantastic piece of work that’s travelled to the Adelaide Fringe and Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It really is six women standing in front of a white wall, evoking emotions and trying to get the audience to interact with them. “And we’ve also got a show down from Sydney called Faster Ladies Godiva Faster<, which is the exploration of the feminine qualities of superheroes. It’s a very dynamic piece and it’s really, really exciting. “And then we’ve got some local Brisbane artists, including Ildiko Susany, who’s presenting a show called The Day the Galaxy Inevitably Exploded and Died. It’s a new work she’s just written, an exciting new Queensland work.” Looking at the 2High Festival program, and the team behind it, the future of the Australian arts sector is in more than capable hands. 2high Festival, November 13 – 14 Brisbane Powerhouse, 119 Lamington Street, New Farm QLD http://2highfestival.com