Students from Castlemaine Secondary College have showed just a glimpse of what to expect at next year’s Castlemaine State Festival.
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The 10-day festival will begin on March 17 with a public opening at the Castlemaine Goods Shed.
Dressed as steam punks, 80 students performed a dance and drum piece at the launch.
Castlemaine State Festival creative producer Sam Thomas said the students efforts had been amazing in the lead up to the launch.
“I run the Castlemaine Circus program and the students have a learning festival at the end of term. So we asked to hijack them for their extra curricular activities and created this performance,” Thomas said.
“They have had one week with a choreographer from the UK called Robby Graham. He specialises in what he calls mass movement spectacles.
“We are very lucky to have Robby, he is a world famous choreographer whose profile will get bigger.”
In March, the festival is hoping to increase the number of participants to 200.
“We spent five days creating this for the public launch but come march we will hopefully expand in numbers and have a lot of people from the community dancing to Robby’s choreography,” Thomas said.
“Family is a big emphasis for the festival this year. The inter-generational thing is important. It’s important to make sure people feel like they can enjoy stuff together.
“So that was important as a programming choice, to choose things that have a universal appeal.”
The performance’s steam punk theme came from the Victorian-era building the launch was held in.
“We were looking at a styling that might work with the Victorian era and this was a goods shed where the local industry would pack up their goods and send them off into the world,” Thomas said.
“The title of opening night is The Future of Things Past. Hopefully it will be a costumed event. Castlemaine loves a dress up so we’re looking at making (the Goods Shed) look as much like a film set as possible.”
The Castlemaine State Festival is on from March 17 to 26. Go to www.castlemainefestival.com.au for more details.