OzAsia Festival Celebrates Over 200,000 Attendances
OzAsia Festival Stage (Photo credit: Xplorer Media)
Adelaide Festival Centre’s OzAsia Festival celebrated its 17th year with more than 200,000 attendances across over 100 ticketed and free events over three spectacular weeks in 2024. In one of its most successful years ever, the festival concluded with a mighty roar, when internationally renowned Australian hip hop artist, L-FRESH The Lion closed out OzAsia Festival with an electrifying performance on the OzAsia Festival Stage at Lucky Dumpling Market.
Lucky Dumpling Market (Photo credit: Xplorer Media)
Running from 24 Oct to 10 Nov, the festival showcased the very best of Asian and Asian Australian contemporary art and culture across music, dance, theatre, comedy, visual art, community events, food, literature and more. The festival featured more than 400 local, national and international artists from 12 countries and included seven world premieres, four Australian premieres and nine Adelaide premieres. 730 local community members shared their culture through performances and workshops at free community events. Sold out ticketed shows included Parvyn’s Maujuda, Dyan Tai’s Permaisuri, Taylor Sheesh’s The Errors Tour, Qais Essar, The Special Comedy Comedy Special and Singapore Repertory Theatre’s Por Por’s Big Fat Surprise Wedding.
OzAsia Festival also celebrated record-breaking opening week attendances of over 106,000 across the first four days of performances and community events including Taylor Sheesh’s two sold out shows plus family favourite Moon Lantern Trail which attracted more than 42,000 attendees and dazzled Adelaide with the spectacular new Hong Kong Dragon lantern.
Hong Kong Dragon Lantern (Photo credit: Xplorer Media)
Adelaide Festival Centre CEO & Artistic Director Douglas Gautier AM: “My congratulations to Joon-Yee Kwok and the team on the incredible success of OzAsia Festival in its seventeenth year. OzAsia Festival continues to culturally connect artists and audiences through the arts, and it was so wonderful to celebrate that connection with so many people who came out to enjoy the festival.”
On the final weekend of the festival, writing, culture and creativity were celebrated with a series of thought-provoking panels, dynamic discussions and captivating performances at OzAsia Festival’s Weekend of Words. Featuring an extraordinary lineup of novelists, journalists, poets, playwrights, performers and screenwriters from across Australia and Asia and curated by multi-award-winning writer and comedian Sami Shah, visitors were welcomed to the theatres and foyers of Dunstan Playhouse to engage, reflect and be inspired.
Audiences roared with laughter too in the final weekend with sold out shows at Por Por’s Big Fat Surprise Wedding and The Special Comedy Comedy Special with MC Jason Chong. Plus, the ever popular and always hilarious Closing Night Debate saw teams captained by Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa and Jennifer Wong take to the Dunstan Playhouse stage to defend the delicious, Chinese Food vs Indian Food. This not so serious culinary crusade saw Jennifer and Team Indian Food take out the win.
Jason Chong (Photo credit: Xplorer Media)
At the festival’s final weekend, comedian and broadcaster Jason Chong was presented with the inaugural OzAsia Legend Award which honours Asian Australian trailblazers whose work amplifies Asian Australian representation in the arts, entertainment and media.
OzAsia Festival Artistic and Executive Producer Joon-Yee Kwok: “I was so thrilled to see so many people coming together with their families and friends to experience OzAsia Festival. Thank you for embracing the festival so warmly and with so much love, especially in my first year as OzAsia Festival Artistic and Executive Producer. Seeing your smiles, hearing your laughter and applause, and dancing with you, was simply wonderful. Thank you for celebrating with us.
“I would also like to thank all the talented artists who shared their amazing stories and creations, the community groups who generously shared their culture with us, and the extraordinary OzAsia Festival and Adelaide Festival Centre teams who brought the festival to life.
“And last but not least, I would like to congratulate Jason Chong, winner of the 2024 OzAsia Legend Award. Jason truly embodies the spirit of OzAsia Festival. OzAsia Festival 2024 has been a fantastic celebration of art, culture and community. I look forward to welcoming you back in 2025.”
The Hon. Andrea Michaels MP, Minister for Arts: “Congratulations to the team at Adelaide Festival Centre for presenting such a successful OzAsia Festival. It has been wonderful to see South Australians coming together to celebrate the very best in Asian and Asian Australian arts and culture across so many varied events.”