By SAT News Desk
Melbourne, 30 July: The Australian Government has announced $250,000 to support the Confluence: Festival of India in Australia 2016. Others supporting the festival include Adani Solar (Platinum sponsor), ICCR, Ministry of Culture (India) and the Australia-India Council. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the media partner. The festival is being produced by the ‘Teamworks’ team who organize the Jaipur Literature Festival every year.
Launched recently, the festival is the most significant showcase of India’s arts and culture to be staged in Australia. Held from August to November 2016, the festival will bring an exciting and diverse program of the finest classical and contemporary performing and visual arts from India to audiences across six Australian cities (Adelaide, Alice Springs, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth & Sydney). The festival will also include a number of community activities and collaborations with local artists.
Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield, Minister for Communications, Minister for the Arts and
Manager of Government Business in the Senate in a media statement says, “This cultural celebration will extend and deepen the longstanding relationship between Australia and India by giving Australian audiences the opportunity to experience a program including exhibitions, theatre, dance and music.”
The Festival of India in Australia was announced by Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi in 2014 and is a key deliverable of the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Arts and Culture between the Indian and the Australian Government’s. The festival follows the Australian Government’s ‘Oz Fest’, a major cultural festival in India that ran from October 2012 to February 2013.
The Australian Government has committed $200,000 to the festival through the Department of Communications and the Arts and a further $50,000 from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Australia India Council.
-SAT News Service.
