Friends of the Festival is the Blog for the Zig Zag Festival
We already have some great plans this year, and we want to include the Friends of the Festival in those plans!
You can join Friends of the Festival , leave us your name and email in a comment and we will add you to the mailing list for newsletters, updates and offers.
Some of the things we do are in preparation for the Festival,
and some of the things we do are events in their own right.
Check out the list on the right under categories.
Flashback dressed the part really well
Another great dress-up retro dance night with the great covers sound of Flashback.
Saturday July 16 at the Kalamunda Club (next to Stirk Park, off Kalamunda Road) there’s another evening of great dancing and fun brought to you by the Zig Zag Community Arts crowd. The Chicken Supremes will be back, only more and better, and the band’s brass section is bigger and better too!
After 60s night and 70s night were so successful, we had to try and better that, and we chose the Motown sound! Soul, funk, pop and of course, lots of GLAM!.
Tickets include supper – this time it’s chicken gumbo and spare ribs motown style!
Buy tickets from the Kalamunda (bowling) Club or from Hills Hocus Pocus Costume Hire, or contact Celia 9291 3092. Mailto://info@zigzagfestival.org?Subject=Blog_Inquiry_Motown
This is another fun fundraiser for the 2011 Zig Zag Festival (on the last Sunday of October – the long CHOGM weekend)
Tags: Dance, Music, Participation
on Saturday 19 March Mat de Koning was named ~ YOUNG FILM-MAKER of the YEAR ~ at the West Australian Screen Awards. Behind him on the podium footage from Harmony in Halls Creek was being screened, along with some of his other wonderful work. He has received a cheque for $5000 and word of a grant from Screenwest which will allow him to travel overseas for more filming!
As you might know, Mat went to Kalamunda High School and was quite young when he first had contact with Zig Zag Community Arts, organizers of the Zig Zag Festival and community development projects that lead to it. In 2006 his younger sister Meg entered a student Video Competition with best entries screened at the Festival. Mat was interviewed in her film Fire on the Hill, about the rich Kalamunda young music scene which he himself has continued to record on film since then. His filming skills have developed rapidly as he has devoted himself full time to this profession. Mat has filmed the last three Zig Zag Festivals.
It was Mat’s love of music and appetite for adventure that found him on assignment in Halls Creek WA in May 2009. Madjitil Moorna, the choir that sings Aboriginal songs in Perth had been invited to come to the remote Kimberley to bring their positive energy and harmonious songs to children and families living in a troubled community at that time. Mat travelled with the choir, filming the whole week, from a timid start to a community concert at the end of the week which featured local bands and scores of kids on stage, singing loudly with the choir. His film Harmony in Halls Creek is much loved by the community and was nominated Best Documentary at last year’s WA Screen Awards. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGfqkZLnubo for a short clip from that doco.
Mat is currently piecing together footage from Madjitil Moorna’s second and third visit to the town last year. This will become another documentary, showing how the choir has contributed to the lifting of morale in Halls Creek, through music and activities. In August 2010 Halls Creek held its own Music Festival and Madjitil Moorna was invited to come and polish the kids’ performances and provide crafts and activities on the day. 10 MM people including Mat enjoyed this very rewarding experience.
Stay tuned for news of when to see his next work!
SO THRILLED,
Jo
Joanna Randell
Madjitil Moorna Coordinator
Quote from the Awards site:
Jo Randell, Forrestfield, WA – ‘Reconciliation Award’
From a firm belief that, through singing, people of different backgrounds could together explore Aboriginal culture, Jo Randell initiated a 13 week community arts project and Madjitil Moorna, Singers of Aboriginal Songs, was born.
Though a talented musician and choir leader in her own right, Jo insisted from the start that the choir should have Aboriginal leadership. Now in its fifth year Madjitil Moorna, is an all-inclusive, community choir based near Perth, which sings contemporary and traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music and led by award-winning Noongar musicians, George Walley and Della Rae Morrison.
Performances at schools and at significant cultural events enable the choir to share its message of reconciliation and healing with the wider community. In 2009, the choir travelled to Halls Creek in the Kimberley at the invitation of local school teacher, Doreen Green, to share its soulful songs of reconciliation and healing with Halls Creek school students.
Ms Karl Mourach, cultural adviser: “Madjitil Moorna has gone from strength to strength through the inspirational leadership of Jo Randell. The choir has impacted emotionally on many diverse audiences. The initial thirteen week project has taken on a life of its own and has become a valued healing and reconciliation tool.”
Judges’ comments: “She saw a need, developed the concept and then was bighearted enough to stand in the background and let indigenous leaders lead. We were inspired [by] the notion that culture and traditions can be preserved by exposing them to as many people as possible. Jo has created a forum in which black and white Australians can stand together and sing.”
27 February 2011
http://www.musicincommunities.org.au/awards/2010-awards-winners
Singing in the Choir on Festival Day, Jo Randell (3rd visible from left)
Tags: Aboriginal Language, Awards, Choir, Music, Reconcilliation
Jo Randell Choir Coordinator of Madjitil Moorna has been nominated as a finalist in the Music in Communities Award 2010.
Jo’s been shortlisted as one of 19 national finalists in the Awards and will progress to the national judging panel. Winners will be announced by the middle of February.
Local musician, Joanna (Jo) Randell, has been nominated in a national Award scheme to recognise inspiring leadership. Jo has a long history of involvement with Community Arts having developed a Kalamunda choir, A Kappella Munda; taught singing at a local Community Learning centre and had a long association with Zig Zag Community Arts Inc and the Zig Zag Festival.
In the last 5 years she had been crucially involved in the development of Madjitil Moorna - Singers of Aboriginal songs, a choir which connects people and celebrates Aboriginal culture.
She believes singing is like laughing and that we should all do lots of it and not leave it to the experts.
The next Youth Band Night will be on Saturday 2 October. Right now we are calling for bands to play on the night.
Declan will take your details, and answer any questions about the arrangements on the night.
Bands Wanted Poster Youth Band Night October 2010 (click image to see full size)
Interested bands need to get in contact before 15 September. The Band list gets published shortly after that, and the final posters go out with the names of bands playing.
Tags: Music, Performance, School Holidays, Youth
The inaugural Halls Creek Music Festival is on Saturday Aug 28. The choir has been invited as ‘special guests’… along with Kimberley favourite son, Ernie Bridge.
Ten Madjitil Moornapeople will be there for preparations and general volunteering. Della Rae Morrison will lead the singing and dancing, Marie and Sebastien will lead craft workshops and poi – both in the community and from a Madjitil Moorna tent, on Festival Day. Young MMers Claire and Wren will be there as play leaders and fab poi-twirlers as well. Four other singers will join the gang.
Madjitil Moora will help prepare Red Hill School’s performance and hopefully have their own performance time after dark for fire poi.
Doreen Green is our key person in Halls Creek, arranging accommodation and finding jobs for us as volunteers. It has been Doreen’s dream for five years that her community heals to the stage that it can host a music festival, understanding the healing power of singing and playing together and knowing how many benefits this will bring. Madjitil Moorna was a big fish that she caught along the way!
Six of us will fly with Argyle Diamonds arriving at the mine site Weds 25 Aug and not returning till Mon 30 when we will stay our last night in dongas on site and catch an early flight home. Luggage limit is 10kg so not much room for diamonds. Huge thanks to Argyle Diamonds for their generous support
Tags: Aboriginal Language, Choir, Halls Creek, Music, Participation, Performance
New Start for Madjitil Moorna this coming Monday 9 August, with George Walley. 12 weeks ’till Festival. Looking for more singers, ready for a fab ride towards reconciliation!
Come to the Anderson Road Community Centre, Forrestfield
6.30 cuppa, 7pm we sing till 8.30. Bring the kids.
New Aboriginal songs coming up!
Tags: Aboriginal Language, Choir, Companionship, Creative, Dance, Music, Participation, Reconcilliation
Our intrepid and diminutive photographer, Gillian Berry has processed all the photos from the 70s Night and posted them on her gallery.
Blog here
and Gallery here http
and 70s Night Dance album here
Not only that, if you want to buy copies of any of the photos, they are on special pricing (But wait, there’s more: part proceeds go to the 2010 Zig Zag Festival!)
FLASHBACK were great! The support musicians were great! The food was great, and the decorations were amazing!
Decorations
Doors opened at 7:15 (while the band were still rehearsing one number with the Chicken Supremes) and at 7:33 the music started, and at once there were dancers on the floor, and it was all happening!
By 8:00 pm the place was packed. the tables were taken, the dance floor was full, and the second round of nibbles was on its way out. by 8:30 people had started to recognise each other behind the wigs and crazy costumes (one couple came as Scooby Doo and Velma, one of the Girls, wow that dog suit must have been hot!)
Scooby and Valma on arrival
Supper was served, and the band played some softer numbers to assist digestion, but the serious dancers took their chance to stake a claim on the woodwork. The set included some numbers with a brass section, stunningly provided by Gerard and Michelle.
The Chicken Supremes singing Rivers of Babylon
The Chicken Supremes (in reality you should know this was half the Zig Zag Committee) came on, in costume, and sang “the rivers of Babylon” in tight harmony (and tight costumes).
Roxy was accompanied by Bec on violin to sing “I will Survive” to huge applause, and a short while later, Sophie sang two ABBA numbers which drove the dance floor wild.
Then that quintessestial 70s number from the Bee Gees, “Staying Alive” set the scene for the challenge: which of the three dancers wearing The White Suit were going to do the Travolta thing?
Steven Donaldson - The MAN in the WHITE SUIT
It didn’t take long to work that out: Stephen Donaldson took centre stage at the front of the dance floor, and owned it! He danced the whole song superbly, and got probably the biggest roar of applause all evening.
What were those lips? They were kinda familiar, yet sorta strange...
Then at the start of the fourth set there was a technical hitch, the audience had to wait while the band got ready, while the light show played the same sequence of bright red lips against a black background. Wait, wait, wait. Then a familiar riff and then out from backstage came the singers again – in full burlesque – and Did The Time Warp!
let's... Do The Time Warp
The place went off! Everyone had the moves, the hands went on the hips, and you know the rest!
That was closely followed by Blues Brothers, and then the Chicken Supremes were back singing backing for “Mustang Sally” and there was even a set of lyrics for “Sweet Home Alabama Kalamunda”.
This was more than a fun fundraiser, this was a large community of diverse ages, all participating in a triumph of common interest. The costumes were fantastic, the crowd was grinning all night, the dance floor could have been twice the size but we all scrunched together in good cheer!
Thank you to all our in kind sponsors for all the raffle prizes and the silent auction items.
The raffles went well, the silent auction went well, the coin toss was amazing and most tables completed the little 70s quiz page. So have a read of the comments below from the questionnaire. (But first, place your tongue firmly in your cheek!). From the Zig Zag Committee, to everyone that came along: Thank you! We enjoyed it, and we hope you enjoyed it as much as you appeared to!
Tags: 70s, Dance, Music, Participation, Performance
Saturday 26th June will be another night to remember in Kalamunda. We are holding another retro dance night!
It’s your chance to dress the part, and party on down with all your friends at the Kalamunda Club. Get a table together!
Flashback performing at the 60s night in 2009
We’ll have the Kalamunda Club decorated up, and there will be special lights, there will be a light supper, a fully licensed bar and the best retro covers band in WA - FLASHBACK will be playing (almost) all night.
As happened last year at the 60s Night Dance, the Chicken Supremes will be joining in for a set of songs, and there are some super surprises planned too!
Tickets are now on sale at the Kalamunda Bookshop on Haynes St. and you can start browsing the costumes at Hills Hocus Pocus costume hire (just behind the Friendlies Chemist).
You can book tables by calling 9291-3092 and telling us your ticket numbers.
The Banner is up too
70s Night Dance - the Banner
JUNE 26
Kalamunda Club
Kalamunda Road
Kalamunda
The Chicken Supremes have been going to rehearsals too, you’re going to love some of the songs!
Tags: Dance, Music, Participation