This year’s Desert Harmony Festival has been hailed a success with more than 3,000 people passing through the gates over the Picnic Day long weekend.
The Barkly Regional Arts’ event featured 27 performances, an extensive workshop series and an art fair over four days in Tennant Creek, the annual festival provided an opportunity to celebrate and showcase talented creatives from the Barkly region alongside some special guest performances.
This year the Variety Spectacular and BAMFest, held on Saturday and Sunday of the festival respectively, saw the likes of Kasey Chambers, Warren H Williams, Kankawa Nagarra (Olive Knight), Desert Eagles, Eastern Arrernte Band and Ray Dimakarri Dixon take to the Tennant Creek stage.
In addition to the four days of festivities held at Barkly Regional Arts and Nyinkka Nyunyu Art & Culture Centre, Barkly Regional Arts also ran a satellite series for the festival beginning in June and consisting of tie-dye, circus, DJ and drumming workshops at Tennant Creek Primary School, Tennant Creek High School and Alekarenge School in Ali Curung, as well as the Barkly’s first slam poetry event in partnership with Red Dirt Poetry Festival.
Barkly Regional Arts Artistic Director Katie Lynch said this year’s Desert Harmony Festival was a true showcase the best the Barkly has to offer.
“It brought the community together to celebrate local art, music and culture, which we shared with some incredible guest performers from across the country,” she said.
“The Festival is central to Barkly Regional Arts’ core mission of facilitating access, development and recognition for arts in the Barkly and we are proud to have delivered such a successful event for the Barkly community and our guests.”
Barkly Regional Arts is the hub for arts in the Barkly, a region that covers an area of around 322,717 square kilometres of Australia’s Northern Territory.
It is home to the Artists of the Barkly collective, Winanjjikari Music Centre and Desert Harmony Festival.
Barkly Regional Arts collaborates with remote Indigenous communities to foster access, development, and recognition of arts in the Barkly.
The organisation facilitates the production of art and music by providing Barkly communities with access to studio space, materials, and equipment and encourage artists to develop their talent by offering ongoing, career-long professional development programs and access to platforms for artists to exhibit and perform locally, nationally, and internationally, supporting them as they build recognition for themselves and their communities.
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This article appeared in Tennant & District Times, 5 August 2022.
