Set Your Alarm For A Free 24-Hour Melbourne Arts Festival
Chirnside Park Werribee is turning into a wonderland of art, live music and more as a brand-new, 24-hour festival known as ‘24’ takes place over the weekend of Saturday 6 May until 6pm to Sunday 7 May 2023.
24 Werribee festival
An exciting first for Melbourne’s west, Wyndham City Council is presenting this ‘White Night’ style, free, all-ages arts festival. The Werribee festival action kicks off at 6 pm on Saturday 6 May, and will run through to 6 pm Sunday 7 May, with the opportunity to stay up through the night or drop in across the twenty-four hours.
Playing on the idea of time itself, 24 will feature a number of durational live artworks created in real-time along with a time-inspired cinema program. Every hour brings something new to enjoy!
From dusk, the park will be buzzing with a fantastic line-up of live music and dance on the Riverside Stage, a live-action painting project turning an old car into a dazzling neon artwork, and tunes from the alluring UKI – a giant, robotic insect on wheels with its own DJ deck.
As dusk fades to dark, the park will take on a magical glow with a garden of 400 illuminated flowers in bloom and other ambient experiences to enjoy through to the early hours of the morning.
Then boogie into the night at the Silent Disco running from 11 pm until 7 am, help create a large woven labyrinth in Archi-Loom, bust out the fluoro for some neon tennis or be entranced by the otherworldly Sacred Serfs and Illuminated Angels.
Greet the dawn with a Raga of Indian classical music and yoga for all ages. Then, once the coffee kicks in, go for glory with an epic paper plane competition before settling in to watch further performances on the main stage.
24 will also feature a 24 Hour Outdoor Cinema! The program includes back-to-back screenings of cult classics, each playing on the theme of time (think Back to the Future and Groundhog Day). Headphones are provided so you can stay up late, experiencing your silent cinema under the stars.
The Riverside Stage will celebrate music and dance from around the world, reflective of the diverse multicultural community that makes up Melbourne’s west. Highlights include:
- Ethiopian roots, reggae and dancehall singer-songwriter Nhatty Man
- Master of the kora, Amadou Suso & Friends Band
- Wurundjeri female dance group Djirri Djirri
- Hip-hop artist NOMAD
- A collaboration of classic and contemporary Arabic music from Tarabeat x MzRizk,
- Up-and-coming indie rockers Berkeley
- Supergroup, Halo Vocal Ensemble (Melbourne Music Week, Melbourne International Jazz Festival) reinterpreting classics from RnB royalty and many more.
Other event highlights include:
- UKI, part insect, part mechanical robot and part DJ booth on wheels (previously seen at Burning Man and at White Night Melbourne)
- Live art pieces – created in real-time across the duration of the event:
- Multi-faceted artist and designer Callum Preston, of Everfresh Studio, will turn an old car into a glowing, neon piece of art in the space of 24 hours. Known for working across many mediums, Callum has partnered with the likes of the NGV, Converse and a long list of musicians. One of his most recent collaborations was with RONE, as the set builder for Time, by RONE at Flinders Street Station.
- Two large-scale artworks from the Slow Art Collection, including a huge, woven work called Archi-Loom, where you can let your creativity run wild, adding your own piece of art over the duration of the event.
- Dancer, Janette Hoe, will create an ethereal performance, appearing at various times throughout the event.
- A glowing garden maze of 400 illuminated flowers and soundscape crafted entirely from recycled plastics known as Imaginary Botanicals along with Chromatica, a giant kaleidoscope that transforms the classic childhood toy into a large-scale interactive experience, both from The Indirect Object.
- A larger-than-life board game, The Curious Game by Born in a Taxi, where you become the chess piece – no one knows what the rules are, and everyone’s a winner.
- Roving Performances popping up in the most surprising of places, including Illuminated Angels, Sacred Serfs, giant dragonflies, ladybirds and more.
- Neon Tennis, glow-in-the-dark tennis on one of Chirnside Park’s full-sized tennis courts.
- 24 Hour Outdoor Cinema: a back-to-back program of cult classics – each inspired by the theme of time (think Groundhog Day and Back to the Future). Headphones provided for a silent cinema experience.
To make your festival complete, you’ll find a range of dining options in Werribee City Centre, just a short walk from Chirnside Park, or enjoy a bite to eat from the onsite food trucks, with picnics also welcome.
Free public car parking is located close by, with the main entrance to the event site from Watton Street at the Intersection of Greaves Street South.
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