Adelaide Festival Centre's OzAsia Festival Recognized as Finalist in Australia-China Achievement Awards

Adelaide Festival Centre's OzAsia Festival was recently recognised as a finalist in the arts category of The Australia-China Achievement Awards. The Awards recognise the champions of the bilateral relationship and celebrate the entrepreneurship and creativity of Australian organisations and people in advancing Australia-China.

The awards coincided with the visit of the Chinese President and a number of leading provincial level Governors in Australia for the 1st China Australia Leaders Forum in Sydney today.

The event is being attended by all State Premiers, numerous Chinese Leaders as well as a limited number of business, education, tourism and cultural leaders of whom Adelaide Festival Centre CEO and Artistic Director Douglas Gautier is one. Further recognising the role that Adelaide Festival Centre has played in promoting Chinese-Australian cultural relations, Douglas was extended the invitation by the Premier of South Australia.

The finalist position is an extraordinary achievement for Adelaide Festival Centre and testament to the good outstanding work the OzAsia Festival does in continuing year round to build a reputation for its successful focus on Australian-Asian cultural engagement.

OzAsia Festival has worked hard and passionately to become the premiere Australian cultural event contributing to and engaging with the cultural landscape of the Asian region.

This year's OzAsia Festival contained six world premieres, seven Australian premieres, eight South Australian premieres and 26 Adelaide exclusives. More than 250 artists and presenters from around the globe descended on Adelaide to be part of this international event. Artists from Japan, India, Korea, the Philippines, Cambodia, Palestine, Bangladesh, Russia, Indonesia, Mongolia and of course Australia all formed part of this year's rich program.

The program included 33 unique events including 18 performance focused events, six talk and ideas based events and nine visual arts exhibitions. Across the 33 unique events were a total of 27 professional performances, 15 community performances, 24 films screenings, 66 workshops and 19 other activities such as post show talks and cultural demonstrations.

The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Shandong in April 2013 saw Shandong become the focus of the 2014 OzAsia Festival and, with the support of both the South Australian and Shandong Governments, brought a number of unique cultural activities and workshops from Shandong including two flagship performances which headlined the 2014 Festival.

It was the largest cultural exchange between a Chinese Province and an Australian State ever staged, allowing Adelaide audiences to step into the fascinating world of Chinese civilisation.

The MOU was re-signed at the end of the Festival. The agreement between the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust, the Shandong Department of Culture and the University of SA is a significant step in the evolution of the OzAsia Festival and the role it will play in positioning cultural exchange between South Australia and China. It will see a return artistic visit from South Australia into Shandong next year. Work is underway on a "pop up" version of the Adelaide Festival Centre's Adelaide International Guitar Festival, alongside an indigenous arts exhibition and a number of iconic South Australian films in Jinan and Qingdao next year. South Australian businesses will be able to use these events as a vehicle to promote their products and services.

Additionally, Douglas Gautier, CEO and Artistic Director demonstrates his leadership as current Chair of the Association of Asia Pacific Performing Arts Centres (AAPPAC).

"Achieving a finalist position in the inaugural Australia-China Achievement Awards further cements Adelaide Festival Centre's leadership position which has been steadily building and reputation for its successful focus on Australian-Asian cultural engagement. Adelaide Festival Centre's Our OzAsia Festival supports deeper cultural relations and builds on South Australia's international reputation as a hub for arts and culture," said Douglas.

Earlier this year we were very fortunate to have seen performances such as Red Sorghum and Dream of the Ghost Story at this year's Oz Asia Festival. They were massive performances that represent the very best of contemporary Chinese performing arts and would never have come to Adelaide or Australia without the MOU signed last year."

Douglas says, "We are committed to projecting an image of South Australia to the rest of the country and internationally into China and the rest of Asia. We will continue to help Australians understandings of Asian culture, traditions and language, with the presentation of Asian cultural programs".

Planning for the 2015 OzAsia Festival is underway with a focus on Indonesia. Dates for 2015 have been confirmed for 23 September 2015 - 4 October 2015.

Festival Director Joseph Mitchell, heading up his first OzAsia Festival in 2015, believes this year's program will build on the success of previous years including introducing a greater emphasis on contemporary artistic voices from across Asia, "OzAsia Festival is Australia's leading arts festival for engagement with Asia and is the ideal platform to introduce artists at the cutting edge of contemporary Asia to Australian audiences. We will continue to identify, develop and support artistic exchange with a focus on Asian engagement."