FUSION17: Food, music and cultures to combine at free street festival on this Saturday 21 October

The world will be coming to Wagga Wagga on 21 October, with the Fusion Multicultural Street Festival taking part in the Global Angel Wings Project.

Each year Fusion celebrates the 112 countries of origin, 107 language groups and 62 faiths that make up our community, making it a perfect fit with the interactive street art concept that can be found in cities around the world.

“The Global Angel Wings Project serves as a reminder of mankind’s ‘humanity’ and ‘equality’ – which in essence is what Fusion is all about – a celebration of culture, traditions and unity,” Council’s Director Community Janice Summerhayes said.

“While at Fusion enjoying food, music, art and culture from all corners of our community, you can have a photo in front of the giant hand wings at the front of the library and join this worldwide cause.”

The Global Angel Wings Project was created by artist Colette Miller in 2012 on the streets of Los Angeles - the City of Angels – and connects people of all backgrounds with wings found in Taiwan, France, Cuba and more.

With the Fusion festival just days away, the buzz around the annual event is building. More than 10,000 people are set to enjoy a huge line up of entertainment and food from a mouth-watering 25 different countries in the Victory Memorial Gardens and Civic Centre Precinct.

“From Afghani to Vietnamese, the diverse range of cuisines will transform Baylis Street into a World Food Village,” Ms Summerhayes said.

“There will be music from Ngaiire, Holly Throsby, Elki and Thelma Plum as well as entertainment from Old Spice, The Bearded Bakers, Stiltuesque and Cumbia Massive.

“Along with our headliners there will also be six community performances, including the

Tintenfisch all-abilities band visiting from Wagga Wagga’s German Sister City Nordlingen.”

A delegation from Nordlingen will attend Fusion as part of the 50th anniversary of the ‘twinning’ of the cities, while a delegation from Wagga Wagga’s American Sister City Leavenworth will also be in attendance.

Leading into the festival, community members may have also noticed some ‘origami bombing’ around the city by Papel (Paper).

Caroline Candusso and son Agustin – who showed his paper-folding skills on Channel Seven’s Little Big Shots recently – have been decorating sculptures around the CBD with special Fusion paper artworks. The paper design is the same as the artwork created by artist Emily Wills in the Sister City Walkway.

The Candussos will also have a large origami installation at Fusion, with festivalgoers able to learn how to fold from the experts and add their pieces to the artwork.

Fusion17 is proudly funded and presented by Wagga Wagga City Council in partnership with Multicultural Council of Wagga Wagga, Riverina Community College and media sponsor The Daily Advertiser.

“Wagga Wagga City Council is proud to make this annual multicultural street festival possible, with our local community and visitors alike able to enjoy eclectic performances,

mouth-watering food, pop-up shops and more on the backdrop of our stunning Civic  Precinct and Wollundry Lagoon,” Ms Summerhayes said.

The fun of Fusion17 flows from 4pm to 9.30pm at the Victory Memorial Gardens and Civic

Precinct on 21 October: www.wagga.nsw.gov.au/fusion

FUSION17

When: Saturday 21 October, 4pm to 9.30pm

Where: Civic Precinct (corner of Baylis and Morrow streets)

What: Free multicultural street festival with performances from Ngaiire, Thelma Plum, Holly Throsby and Elki and entertainment by Old Spice, Stiltuesque, The Bearded Bakers and Melbourne-based DJs Sala La Mois, Monkey Marc and Victor Gil Gomez.

TIMETABLE

Victory Memorial Gardens stage

4pm: Tintenfisch from Nördlingen, Germany

4.10pm: Borja Family Quartet

4.20pm: Acholi Cultural Dancers

4.30pm: Nepali Tihar Deusi Bhaili

4.40pm: Bangladeshi Cultural Group

4.50pm: Coota Bollywood All Stars

5pm: Shinwa-Kai Karate Club Australia Inc.

5.10pm: Official welcome

5.20pm: Elki

6.15pm: Holly Throsby

7.15pm: Thelma Plum

8.30pm: Ngaiire

Civic forecourt stage

From 4pm: Catch Saca La Mois DJ!!, Sonidero Esperanza & Monkey Marc performing exclusive back-to-back DJ sets powered by the DiY Hi Fi sound system.

From 5.30pm: Stiltuesque dazzle during the day and illuminate the night! You will be spell bound by their visually stunning interactive theatre performances.

World Food Village

4pm to 9pm: Devour authentic and modern street style bites from Afghanistan, Africa, Burma, China, Egypt, India, Iraq, Italy, Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Samoa, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Syria, Thailand, The Netherlands, The Philippines, Turkey, the US and Vietnam.

From 4pm: The Bearded Bakers and Old Spice

PERFORMER PROFILES

Headliners

Ngaiire

Born in Papua New Guinea and spending her early years in New Zealand, by age seven Ngaiire had beaten rare form of cancer “Ganglioneuroblastoma” after two years of treatment.

When her family moved to Australia, her musical world expanded with everything from Jeff Buckley to Debussy. Her breathtaking voice has taken her across the world, including the iconic Glastonbury Festival, as well as shows with Alicia Keys and John Legend, supporting Sufjan Stevens, a slot at Splendour in the Grass and more.

Thelma Plum

With Triple J Unearthed, NIMA and DEADLY wins under her belt, the constantly animated Thelma relocated from Brisbane to Melbourne to Sydney, absorbing the sounds of the city and developing her craft to expand beyond six strings.

Collaborating along the way with beat smith M-Phazes (Meg Mac, Kimbra, Eminem), the resulting Monster EP with lead song How Much Does Your Love Cost? has dominated airwaves. Follow up Young In Love and guest vocals on Golden Features’ No One the Horrowshow/Urthboy track Any Other Name have meant Thelma Plum is always next on the playlist.

Holly Throsby

Holly Throsby is a songwriter, musician and novelist from Sydney. She has released five critically acclaimed solo albums – On Night (2004), Under the Town (2006), A Loud Call (2008), Team (2011), and After a Time (2017) – as well as a collection of original children’s songs (See!, 2010), and an album as part of the band, Seeker Lover Keeper (with Sarah Blasko and Sally Seltmann).

Holly has been nominated for four ARIAs – including two for Best Female Artist, and one for Best Children’s Album – and has toured with the likes of Joanna Newsom, Bill Callahan, Paul Kelly, Devendra Banhart and The Handsome Family.

Elki

Elki makes “powerful alt-pop with a strong command of storytelling and playful melodies, underpinned by a shimmering darkness”. Counting Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder and Burt Bacharach as her most important influences, she’s been fine-tuning her craft for a number of years. She has been working with ex-Eskimo Joe and Meg Mac producer Joel Quartermain, with her recent single Golden Age added to full rotation on Triple J.

Entertainment

The Bearded Bakers

The Melbourne-based Bearded Bakers are hitting the road to bring their Jerusalem street food to Wagga Wagga. Their commercial bakery, a repurposed shipping container is adorned with street art and the bakers spend as much time entertaining the crowds and dancing on the counter tops, as they do baking their delicious Middle Eastern dessert.

Old Spice

Old Spice: He's not scary, he's not posh, and he's definitely not a baby. He's old.

And, while he may be retired, he's certainly not retiring. This grandpa knows how to spice up the dance floor and he's going to party like it's 1999 (when he was only 65 years old). Having busted a move, but luckily not a hip, at last year’s Fusion, Old Spice is excited to be heading back to Wagga.

Stiltuesque

Stiltuesque is an entertainment and performance-art stilt walking company that specialises in creating high-quality and visually stunning interactive theatre performances. Professionally trained dancers and performers use hand-crafted costumes to create the larger-than-life stilt walking characters.

Saca La Mois DJ

Saca La Mois DJ (aka Moses Iten) is a Melbourne-based dancefloor DJ who has toured all over Australia and the world including New Zealand, Europe, United Arab Emirates, USA and Mexico.

​Victor Gil Gomez

From Mexico City via Melbourne, Victor Gil Gomez - or Sonidero Esperanza – has been mixing classic cumbia, Mexican norteño, tropical sounds, electronic beats and techno. Be sure to bring comfy shoes because you will hear music that will make you yell “Arriba”.

Monkey Marc

Born in Wales and based in Melbourne, producer Monkey Marc’s warm, rugged, bass-heavy sound comes from his obsession with classic old-school production techniques, and a studio full of lovingly-maintained vintage studio gear, including drum machines, samplers, synthesisers, effects units and an analogue console.