Creative juices are flowing freely on campus, with the USU’s annual Verge Arts Festival returning for two weeks of imagination, innovation and inspiration.
The student-run festival kicked off on Friday 28 August, with hundreds packing into the Verge Tent for the opening night party.
Sydney electro-indie outfit Telafonica headlined the bash, christening this year’s Verge Festival Tent with an energetic, crowd-pleasing set.
An anthology of fiction and creative writing by Sydney writers known as SeeSee Miscellany Magazine, launched their first edition on opening night, which was rounded off with a performance by party favourites, Purple Sneakers DJs.
According to festival directors Jehan Kanga and Roslyn Russell, both third year students at USYD, Verge is one of the biggest university art festivals in Australia. “Verge brings hundreds of artists, thousands of students and millions of ideas together to showcase a diverse range of music, visual art, stage, film, and discussion,” they said.
Some of the notable performers descending on campus for the 2009 festival include indie-kings The Jezabels, leading vocal ensemble The Song Company, comedian Akmal Saleh, Chinese rockers Askar Grey Wolf, improv music specialists Fuji Collective, cabaret theatre group Bambina Borracha and many more.
For the first time in Verge history, the 2009 line up introduces VergeTalks, a series of panel discussions probing salient social issues from the creative community’s perspective. Censorship, the environment, mental health, queer identity and political music will be explored by a throng of industry leaders, including Sydney Festival director Lindy Hume, Sydney Morning Herald columnist Annabel Crabb, Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Sydney Prof. Derrick Armstrong, The Herd’s Tim Levinson (aka Urthboy) and other impressive figures.
The festival will run until 11 September, shining the spotlight on the university’s abundant cultural and artistic groups, and promoting creative collaboration with the wider community.
More information on the line-up can be found at www.vergeartsfestival.com