This year, Adelaide Fringe is collaborating with First Nations artists and drone art specialists, Celestial on a unique and exciting performance artwork. Presented by Gluttony, Sky Song will be the centrepiece of the festival’s 2022 program, where state-of-the-art technology unites with ancient Songlines and storytelling to create a profoundly emotional experience.
Hundreds of drones will light up the sky in majestic formation each night, featuring dramatic haze and lighting to fully immerse audiences in this multi-sensory experience.
Narrated by the iconic Archie Roach, singer, songwriter, and tireless campaigner for the rights of Indigenous Australians, audiences will journey through five chapters following topics of knowledge, creation, land rights, the devastation of the stolen generations, and the hopefulness of reconciliation.
Alongside Roach, the soundtrack will feature many of the country’s most acclaimed First Nations artists, including musicians Electric Fields, Iwiri Choir, Nancy Bates and Alan Sumner; storytellers Major Moogy Sumner and Jack Buckskin; poet Ali Cobby Eckermann; dance group Dusty Feet Mob and visual art by Zaachariaha Fielding of Electric Fields.
“We are absolutely thrilled to have Sky Song premiering at Adelaide Fringe in 2022,” says Adelaide Fringe Artistic Director, Heather Croall. “Our audiences at Adelaide Fringe truly love these large scale, light, sound and art projects that fuse cutting edge technology with First Nations storytelling and we can’t wait for people to come and enjoy the amazing drone art show, Sky Song.”
Sky Song Soundtrack Supervisor and co-founder of Deadly Management, Nancy Bates, notes that “the more Australia takes time to listen to our First Nations stories, the richer we become.”
“Sky Song represents the continuation of enduring peoples and enduring wisdom. As light drones dance to interwoven stories, powerful voices will elevate the very consciousness of those gathered for this experience,” says Bates.
In a powerful marriage of old and new, Sky Song is rich in meaning, immense in scale and unlike anything Australian audiences have seen before.
Sky Song will take place at the Adelaide Showgrounds each Thursday to Sunday from 18 February to 20 March. For more information click here.
Adelaide Fringe continues to support First Nations works. If you want to find out more about Artist Grants and how to get involved, visit the Adelaide Fringe Foundation.