The Unconformity, formerly the Queenstown Heritage and Arts Festival, returns to the isolated town on Tasmania’s west coast this October with a three-day celebration of the region’s cultural life.
Its name The Unconformity refers to a geological feature, known as the Haulage Unconformity, upon which the town sits, and which was responsible for the mineral wealth including copper and gold that drove the town’s mining fortunes from late in the 19th century.
Festival Director Travis Tiddy says the aim of the Festival is to highlight the off-beat nature of Queenstown and celebrate its spirit of place and the otherworldliness and power of its landscape, which includes high mountains, deep valleys and a range of surrounding hills left bare of life due to the environmental impacts of the town’s past mining industry.
“In recent years, the town’s fortunes have changed, with the mines closing and our population in decline. Those who have stayed are grappling with finding a new identity to match new industries such as tourism and the arts that are hope will ensure a sustainable future,” said Mr Tiddy.
“The Unconformity is about people and connections and the community’s association with a dramatic landscape that many people feel is simultaneously compelling and ugly, valuable and damaged. As such, it is very much about local issues and emotions, but they are stories and feelings that will resonate with people from all around Australia where communities have grappled with new economic realities and cultural change.”
The Unconformity’s artistic program will explore Queenstown’s paradoxes and unexpected associations inspired by the town and its environment. Local, national and international artists will offer a festival that encompasses visual art, contemporary dance, music, sound art and theatre, as well as the chance to visit some unusual former industrial sites and other places around the town that are not normally open to the public.
The full Festival program will be released in late August; however given the popularity of previous festivals, anyone who wishes to travel to the region to experience it is strongly advised to make accommodation arrangements sooner rather than later. Local accommodation, activities and travel advice is available from the West Coast Visitor Information Centre www.westernwilderness.com.au
Anyone who would like to receive the program as soon as it is available is encouraged to sign up to The Unconformity’s email news list at theunconformity.com.au
The Unconformity – Queenstown, Tasmania 14-16 October 2016
Learn more HERE
Andrew Ross
