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Spectacular festival opening promised for entertainment centreOrganisers are promising a spectacular start to the Esso BHP Billiton Wellington Entertainment Centre’s Opening Festival over Friday 14 and Saturday 15 November, with the Shire’s community invited to join in the extravaganza. By Wellington Shire Council - 31st October 2003 - Back to News A section of Desailly Street outside the entertainment centre will be closed to traffic (from 5.30pm Friday to 5pm Saturday) to accommodate the thousands of visitors expected for the opening weekend festivities.
The excitement begins at 7pm on Friday. Those gathered in Desailly Street and on the Arts Lawn outside the centre will be treated to a stunning, free, 20-minute musical and aeronautic performance set against the backdrop of the Port of Sale. Aerotechnica, a specially commissioned work for the occasion, will bring the talents of composer Steve (Stelios) Adams together with the power and grace of the RAAF Roulettes.
The free entertainment continues outside with an invite to party on to 11pm with the Oxocubans, as they combine five voices with 77 percussion instruments and 33 kilos of brass to fill the air with their singing, whistling, dancing, rapping and fooling around.
Meanwhile inside Phil Sametz will be hosting A Night at the Opera (tickets $48, $38 conc.), with artists from Opera Australia presenting a sparkling program of favourite opera arias, duets and ensembles such as La Traviata, The Pearl Fishers and Don Giovanni. This starts at 8pm.
Turning to the Saturday and the free, fun entertainment continues outside with the Kids Carnival (from 9.30am onwards into the afternoon) which is aimed at the whole family. Simply relax near the lawn stage for all-day entertainment, or get reading in the story corner and make music on the giant floor piano. Wild Things will be making a surprise visit and there will be the chance to meet Juanita the butterfly, Takashi the Crane, Mshai the Giraffe and Pirramurra the Goanna.
Inside the centre the Polyglot Puppets will be performing Muckheap (tickets $15) – a funny, fast and fantastically messy children’s tale of two people trying to clean out their shed for hard rubbish day, which shows off the magic of puppetry. Polyglot will also be running puppet making workshops where those aged five to 12 years will be shown how to bring a chair to life, make a sock giggle and stir the emotions with a piece of cloth! (tickets $15, or combined with the Muckheap show $25).
Those participating in the Gippsland Food, Wine & Music evening (tickets $59) in the entertainment’ centre’s Bis café will be taken on a gastronomic tour of Gippsland’s strengths, wrapped in a way that is guaranteed to tantalise the senses.
Then on 16, 17 and 18 November the best talent in Wellington Shire will be putting the new venue through its paces with music, comedy, dancing and entertainment, as the audience enjoy Tripping the Light (tickets $18, $12 conc.).
Said Wellington’s Mayor John Jago: "This festival opening promises to be a really exciting occasion and highlights what our new entertainment centre is all about, giving an idea of the sort of cultural entertainment that we will now be able to attract to Wellington and the Gippsland region.
"If the recent weekend open day is anything to go by, when some 1,200 people took the opportunity to look around the facilities - including from Bairnsdale, Morwell and Melbourne – there should be a real throng of people for the start of the festival which will make for a great festive atmosphere.
"We invite everyone to join in this fun occasion."
Other highlights of the festival program include: Flat on Your Bacharach on 20 November; Heyfield’s very own Wil Anderson, who returns home with his new show Licence to Wil on 22 November; and Eye2Eye’s Rocky Horror Picture Show from 28 November.
For more details on any of these events and tickets please call the box office on 5143 3200.
Source: www.gippsland.com Published by: news@gippsland.com
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