DRIFT – a brand new 11-day music and arts festival on the Mornington Peninsula (21st April – 1st May).
For 11 days this autumn, and for the very first time, Drift will bring the Peninsula’s venues, places and spaces to life with art from all disciplines including performance, music, visual arts, public art installations, film and projections, writing, culture and heritage, offering over 80 unmissable new opportunities to experience the best of the region.
With a focus on immersion, participation, creativity and fun, Drift honours the local creative community across the Mornington Peninsula, while also bringing fresh new talent into the region.
Choose your own adventure by using the Your Drift festival planner: https://www.driftartsfestival.com.au/your-drift – a personal festival curation tool to help select and plan your bespoke exploration of the Drift experience.
The festival is anchored by a number of lovingly curated keynote projects, presented alongside a host of community-led creative activations and events in venues and public spaces across the Peninsula.
Come and immerse yourself in the continuity of history. Come and drift. Thursday 21 April – Sunday 1 May. https://www.driftartsfestival.com.au/
Key Events
O_C_E_A_N by Janenne Willis: 21st April – 1st May.
O_C_E_A_N, a multidisciplinary arts project encompassing contemporary art, story and spiritual practice across a series of iconic, unique and hidden locations around the Peninsula. Developed by Shoreham based artist and curator Janenne Willis, O_C_E_A_N explores and pays homage to the transformative nature of our water environments.
Explore a floating gallery offshore at Flinders; soak in a host of projection and video works such as Yandell Walton’s Uprise; trek across wetlands and clifftops in search of sculptural installations; even learn to paint while surfing.
O_C_E_A_N also brings Matthias Schack-Arnott’s new work Groundswell* to Victoria for the first time; a beautiful installation that combines auditory, sculptural and interactive elements to prompt a meditation on our relationships with the earth, ocean and one another. Audiences are invited to climb atop a six metre circular platform that tilts as you walk, causing a sea of some 40,000 ball bearings to cascade and summon a complex oceanic soundscape.
INTO THE WILDERNESS: 30th April. Hi res imagery here.
Into the Wilderness**, a family-friendly FREE day of live music, performance, participatory workshops and activities at Balnarring’s Emu Plains Reserve. Fun, exploratory and immersive, this event will feature music from Pierce Brothers, The Grogans, Hayley Mary, Andy Golledge, Bumpy, Nicky Bomba, Stiff Richards, Time Machine, Polarize, Hayden Calnin, President Roots, NinchFest DJs and more across two music stages.
Into the Wilderness also features the Little Palais Circus tent, filled with circus, physical theatre and comedy, and a makers’ market lovingly curated by the good folks at Emu Plains Market / Untold Events Co showcasing the best in local art, craft and design. Mornington Peninsula has long been known as a destination for gourmet food and wine, and this event aims to showcase some of the best of the region’s food and beverage offerings.
As dusk falls, Emu Plains will light up with colourful light installations from Playable Streets and Lantasia Lights, blending traditional lantern design, sculpture and illustration to create luminous pieces of art, courtesy of The Lanternist.
FALLING INTO PLACE: 1st May. Hi res imagery here.
Falling Into Place is a creative reflection on Hastings and Western Port, known to Traditional Owners as Warn
Marrung or Murambik, through live art, performance and cultural experiences. A full day festival, within the festival.
Falling Into Place features workshops led by First Nations groups designed to bring understanding, acceptance, connection to self, Indigenous culture, Country and each other, as well as site-specific performances around the jetty and foreshore sites, and discussions and walks led by environmental experts.
“We are incredibly excited to bring you Drift Arts Festival. Drift is our new annual flagship arts festival with events between Thursday 21 April and Sunday 1 May. From Portsea to Balnarring, Mornington and beyond, Drift will take you on a creative journey across our Peninsula.”, Mayor Councillor, Anthony Marsh.
