Fiesta La Peel - pavement performances
Arts North West, Music Region New England, and Arts Mid North Coast came together to support the 10th year of Tamworth's Multicultural Festival, Fiesta La Peel. The events included two days of music and activities catered to all ages.
As part of the festivities, Arts North West delivered a series of Pavement Performances that brought vibrancy and live to the Tamworth and Manilla CBDs. These performances entertained passing crowds in Fitzroy Street Plaza, outside the Fitzroy Milk Bar in Tamworth, and outside the Canberra Greek Café in Manilla. The Arts North West Pavement Performances featured a collection of internationally trained musicians, from the NENW (Tamworth/Armidale), Mid North Coast (Bellingen/Coffs Harbour), and the Hunter (Newcastle). The audiences were treated to the sounds of Flamenco Guitar, Bossa Nova, Brazilian Choro, Middle-Eastern, Celtic, Greek, and Balkan music flavours.
Tamworth Regional Library hosted Jigsaw Cinema, a Literacy and Music performance, featuring Alison Lester's book, Isabella's Bed for 300 pre-school and primary school students.
Saturday evening brought the community together to celebrate our culturally diverse region with food, dance, music, and activities. The Fiesta Main stage came to life with Global Music, supported by Arts North West, Arts Mid North Coast, Tamworth Regional Council, and Multicultural Tamworth Inc. Performers came from far and wide - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Iraq, Peru, Scotland, Spain, The Netherlands, Turkey, Ukraine - a collection of music and talent that expressed the extent of global culture that we have in our region.
During the course of the evening event, Arts North West ran Kids Activities where children could make and decorate musical instruments. This included cardboard guitars and making music shakers out of recycled materials. Children could also make their own Carnivale masks!
Our region’s music, art, culture and history on display, for all to enjoy!
FEATURED ARTISTS
EVENT LINE UP
Pavement performances In tamworth - 11.30 AM Friday, 20 October 2023
Location: Fitzroy Street Plaza & outside the Fitzroy Milk Bar, Fitzroy Street, Tamworth
As part of our CBD activation, we paid tribute to 60-plus years of service contributed by the Georgiadis family and their Fitzroy Milk Bar to the Tamworth community.
In Post World War II Australia we still remember, "in each suburb & every country town, there was the Greek café or milk bar—open all hours, 7 days a week. Remember the Niagara, the Parthenon, the California, the Astoria & Paragon? They gave us more than milkshakes, lollies, ice cream & home style meals." They were among regional Australia's first wave of global multiculturalism, bringing atmosphere & creating community in local towns. (Greek Cafés & Milk Bars of Australia by Effy Alexakis & Leonard Janiszewski, Halstead Press, Sydney, 2022)
Passing crowds were treated to some folk, jazz and world music as well as some improvisation from our region's artists.
pavement performances In manilla - 4.30 PM Friday, 20 October 2023
Location: Canberra Greek Cafe, 132 Manilla Street, Manilla.
After a successful performance in Tamworth, the music moved to Manilla! Local audiences experienced performances from the Manilla Community Choir as well as jazz fusion/world music from the cross-regional network of artists. The community gathered outside Manilla’s old Canberra Greek Café. The performance paid tribute to Paul Calokerinos whose Greek Café was once the centrepiece of the Manilla community. His family generously supplied some photos and memorbillia for a display remembering the Calokerinos family’s contribution to the manilla area.
pavement performances as part of fiesta la peel - 12 PM - 8 PM saturday, 21 October, 2023
Arts North West, Music Region New England North West and Arts Mid North Coast supported the programming of Tamworth's 10th year of the Multicultural Festival 'Fiesta La Peel'.
12 PM - 2.30 PM: ARTS NORTH WEST'S PAVEMENT PERFORMANCES TAMWORTH
Music in Fitzroy Street Plaza - jazz fusion and world music from some of Australia’s & our region’s finest.
3 PM - 8 PM: ANW KID’S ACTIVITIES IN THE PARK
Create a Carnival mask or instrument made from recycled materials.
REGIONAL MULTICULTURAL MUSIC ON THE MAIN STAGE
Audiences enjoyed multicultural music and dance performances from around the world. Inland Ensemble, regional NSW’s first intercultural music ensemble, debuted on the Main Stage and is set to tour Europe in 2024. Our artists also supported community-led initiatives celebrating culture and diversity in the region, including the Gunnedah Indonesian Angklung Ensemble, Manilla Community Choir, and the Pacific Islander community's beautiful harmonies.
Tamworth Regional Library played host to a reading and musical performance of Alison Lester's book, Isabella's Bed from to The Jigsaw Cinema. 300 pre-school and primary-aged school students attended the sessions as part of Fiesta La Peel’s 10th anniversary celebrations!
A session was also shared via Zoom direct to a classroom in Japan for students there to enjoy as part of their multicultual studies.
