Next Wave Festival Surges Toward Climax

Next Wave Festival 2014 surges towards its climax with two all-out, immersive weekends on 3 - 4 and 10 - 11 May. With clusters of activity happening around Melbourne from St Kilda to Fairfield, audiences can ride the break from breakfast to dancefloor with Next Wave's Primo Passes, curated day passes of a hand-picked cross-section of art, food and good vibes.

Billed as a safari tour of the art world, audiences will join a raft of like- minded Festival goers and experience a carefully curated program. Charismatic tour guides including Tristan Meecham, Pip Wallis, Dion Kagan, Ace Wagstaff, Megan Williams and Dan Koop, will lead you through Melbourne's best cafes and bars towards plenty of art-inspired chit-chat. The immersive Primo Pass experiences are available on 3 - 4 and 10 - 11 May and can be broken into Day Passes, Evening Passes or full day/night Super Passes.

Over the next two weeks, Next Wave's home base will be found at the Festival Club at Shebeen from Wednesday 30 April. By day, it's your one-stop-café-artist-lounge-info-centre-shop. Charge your phone, refuel with coffee or a quick bite and stop by our Info Booth for Festival tickets, deals and recommendations. We'll also be hosting talks, indoor picnics and other fun stuff to make you think.

By night, the Festival Club heats up with live music, DJs, performances and screenings until the wee hours. Grab a drink and banh mi upstairs at the main bar, head downstairs to get your groove on or slink into a cozy booth for a quiet drink and cheeky Festival pash.

"Our 2014 Festival, has been curated as story with a beginning, middle, climax and end," said Emily Sexton, Artistic Director. "Over the past two weeks, audiences have had a chance to stretch out and sharpen their minds, and now their Festival experience will all crash together in two weekends of madness.

"Social experiences are vital to our experience of contemporary art - so we've infused our Primo Passes with as much drinking, eating and talking as there is art - because we know that's what Melbourne loves."

Next Wave Festival, Australia's biennial festival of emerging artists and ideas, unfolds in Melbourne from 16 April - 11 May, 2014. A city-wide, month-long celebration of cutting-edge arts and culture from around Australia and the globe, Next Wave Festival 2014 celebrates its 30th anniversary with a tightly curated selection of the most ambitious, risky and surprising new art, including performance, dance, visual art, sound art - and ideas impossible to categorise.

Next Wave Festival 2014 runs until Sunday 11 May. Primo Passes are available at: 2014.nextwave.org.au/primo-passes/

Photo Credit: Sarah Walker

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