Desert Song Festival back in Alice Springs and beyond for final time in 2024
A street party has kicked off a beloved Red Centre music festival – which has brought in acts from all over the world – for the last time. SEE THE PHOTOS.
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A street party has kicked off the swan song for a beloved Red Centre music festival – bringing a European choir to a “peculiar” place for the first time, as the curator confirms the festival will downsize in the future.
The Desert Song Festival is back on for the final time in Alice Springs and beyond for 2024, bringing musical acts from all over Australia and the world to the Red Centre.
A Todd Mall street party launched the festival on Tuesday, September 17, with dozens of punters turning out to hear the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir, the Honeybees, and OLGA Vocal Ensemble perform in the march.
The OLGA vocal ensemble comprises of two Dutchmen, an Englishman, an Icelander, and Russian-American Phillip Barkhudarov, who said the festival had “a really nice energy”.
“It’s just a different universe,” he said.
“It’s a very peculiar place, the middle of the desert – kind of the end of the universe for us.”
Running until Sunday, September 22, the festival will see OLGA and other acts perform at various venues in Alice Springs.
The festival ends at Ormiston Gorge on Sunday with “A capella in the Gorge”.
For Desert Song curator Morris Stuart, the festival is finished in its current format – but he hopes to see someone continue on with a “legacy event”.
Mr Stuart said his age and rising costs – for both festival organisers and average punters – made it difficult to run the festival.
However, that doesn’t mean the festival was fully gone, he said.
“We’re looking at an ongoing, smaller event which people 40 years younger than me can handle,” he said.
“So it’s just a matter of re-banding and reimagining – from a Thursday to a Sunday, and the big event with which we end our festival, “A cappella on the Gorge”, we’re planning that will stay and we’ll just wrap a few other things around it.”
But before looking too far ahead, Mr Stuart said what was coming off the stage this year “will be phenomenal”.
“We’ve got local acts, we’ve got interstate acts, we’ve got international acts – we’ve got new people who’ve never been here before, regular artists, groups from Europe.”
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Originally published as Desert Song Festival back in Alice Springs and beyond for final time in 2024
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