The first taste of what's in store at this year's New Annual festival reveals another round of live music at Newcastle's historic ocean baths, returning a standout hit from 2025's event.
The festival will return this year with a four-night program featuring locally and globally renowned arts, says festival director Tory Loudon.
"We were blown away by the response to SOAK last year," Ms Loudon said.
"People came out in droves to soak up the atmosphere, soak up the setting and soak up the incredible talent on show during those live music sessions and I'm thrilled to be bringing it back."
Spruiked as the City of Newcastle's flagship arts festival, New Annual will run from September 25 to October 4.
As the ocean baths are re-cast as a live music venue over four nights, bar Bartholomew's, housed in the old Methodist Mission building on King Street, will 'bloom' for one night only when it is transformed into an immersive art party venue inspired by the darkly evocative work of former Newcastle artist Damien Frost.
The photographer has spent the past 14 years documenting London's alternative queer nightlife through his acclaimed photographic series Night Flowers.
He will return to Newcastle, which he describes as his "spiritual home", to present a collection of those images at Watt Space Gallery.
The exhibition will also premiere new portraits captured for New Annual of Newcastle's queer and alternative communities.
The exhibition will also lead into the TWISTED: Night Flowers Party at Bartholomew's, with guests invited to explore and celebrate their identities through costume, music and performance.
As one of the original founders of Newcastle arts organisation Octopod in the late 1990s, Frost said his work was influenced by his time in the city.
"Although the work centres on personal expression, it is just as much about community and chosen family - ideas I became deeply engaged with during the years I lived in Newcastle," Frost said.
"There, I was actively involved in community arts projects and was struck by the strong sense of belonging and solidarity within both the broader city and its subcultures."
Entry to the SOAK sessions and Night Flowers exhibition at Watt Space Gallery will be free, with tickets for TWISTED on sale from Thursday June 4 from 9am from newannual.com.
The New Annual festival is delivered by City of Newcastle with funding from the NSW government. The University of Newcastle will be a presenting partner at this year's event.
