Bello winter festival
When is a festival more than just another music festival? When it’s Bello winter festival, which includes a mini-environmental festival. Along with enjoying stellar acts like the Milk Carton Kids, Ash Grunwald, Ainslie Wills and Tinpan Orange, festival goers can learn about permaculture, propagation, Indigenous food gathering and other environmental techniques during the Bello Leaf learning festival. Win-win.
Bello winter festival, Bellingen, from 2 to 5 July
Colour sensation: the work of Melinda Harper
She’s one of Australia’s most significant contemporary abstract artists. Now in her first major museum show, Melinda Harper will exhibit three decades of work at the Heide Museum of Modern Art. Known as a painter, Harper’s distinctive colour play and geometric arrangements also grace drawings, collages, screenprints, experimental photographs and embroidery, all of which will be on display.
Colour sensation: the works of Melinda Harper, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, from 27 June to 25 October
Birdland
It was a roaring success when it premiered in London in 2014. Now UK playwright Simon Stephens’ Birdland will have its Australian premiere at MTC, starring Mark Leonard Winter, last seen in STC’s Suddenly Last Summer and well known for his turn in the Hayloft Project’s Thyestes. The tale of a rock star on the verge of a breakdown questions our obsession with celebrities and just how much they can get away with.
Birdland, Melbourne Theatre Company, from 6 June to 11 July
Ryan Adams
He is polarising to say the least but American singer-songwriter Ryan Adams is set to take over the Sydney Opera House, just as he did New York’s Carnegie Hall. Well-known for songs like Oh My Sweet Caroline and New York, New York, the prolific alt–country turned rocker has released 14 albums since 2000, including the Grammy-nominated Ashes & Fire.
Ryan Adams, Sydney Opera House on 21 July, then Enmore theatre. He will also play Forum Theatre Melbourne on 19 July.
Emerge in Yarra
Multicultural Arts Victoria is set to celebrate cultural diversity with the week-long Emerge in Yarra festival. From the tantalising smells of freshly cooked pho or Afghani pilafs and Arabic and Boonwurrung language classes to printmaking and an evening of Ethio-jazz, the festival celebrates the contributions refugees make to Melbourne. Not to be missed.
Emerge festival, Fitzroy Town Hall and other Melbourne locations, from 14 to 20 June
