A multi-month music, arts and film festival celebrating the cultural explosion that occurred in Sydney's underground scene in the 1970s, Sedition 2019 will commence this weekend.
Sedition 2019 focuses on the raw, experimental and protest art that came out of the city throughout the '70s with an array of performances, public discussions, and film screenings, featuring prominent artists from the time.
Leading musical figures from the era – The Aints!, Flaming Hands, Shy Impostors, Margret RoadKnight, Failing In Love Again, and Mangrove Boogie Kings – will be coming together as well to celebrate and re-examine the cultural upheaval that occurred in the city over the course of the '70s.
Co-curator, Lesa-Belle Furhagen does not wish for the festival to be a trip down nostalgia lane, but rather one that explores how these themes are still relevant to today's modern society.
"Women's rights, loud music, a senseless war, racism, environmental destruction, Sydney's high rents, fashion and of course disco feature prominently across the festival," Lesa-Belle says.
"This is not a nostalgic exercise, but an opportunity to revisit experimental and inspirational work across film, music, art and design."
Alongside pieces of art and music acts, the festival will be displaying gig posters from the scene; these posters were the inspiration for the festival as former Rolling Stone editor and Sedition 2019 co-curator Toby Creswell explains.
"Before social media, the best way to get your message out there was with paper and flour and water and a creative expression of your ideas, and the posters bring together the worlds of art and music and ideas. They are angry, amusing, funny and provocative."
Sedition 2019 runs from 31 August to 1 December across various Sydney locations.
Sedition 2019 PROGRAMME
MUSIC
• The Aints, Flaming Hands, Shy Imposters - Sat 31 Aug @ Paddington RSL • Cabaret Conspiracy - Fri 13 Sep @ State Library of NSW• Cabaret: The Post Conspiracists - Sat 14 Sep @ East Sydney Community Arts Centre
• Girls In Our Town: Margret RoadKnight, Janie Conway-Herron, Jan Cornall and Elizabeth Drake, Shayna Karlin, Christa Hughes - Fri 20 Sep @ Cell Block, National Art School
• Riot In Cell Block '79: Mangrove Boogie Kings, Dog Trumpet, Uncle Bob's Band - Sat 28 Sep @ Cell Block, National Art School
ART / EXHIBITIONS
• The Art of Agitation - 31 Aug to 1 Dec @ Amaze Gallery• Paper Tigers - 30 Aug to 12 Oct @ National Art School
FILMS
• Short films: Love Letters from Teralba Road, Violence in the Cinema Part 1, Wrong Side of the Road - Sat 31 Aug @ Palace Verona• Double-Feature: The Night the Prowler, The Rocky Horror Picture Show - Sun 22 Sep @ Palace Verona
TALKS
• A Woman’s Place - Thu 5 Sep @ State Library of NSW• So What Was That All About? Art in the ‘70s - Thu 5 Sep @ University of Sydney
• Art Speaks Truth to Power - Sat 7 Sep @ National Art School
• Horses & Opera Houses: Does Sydney Have a Style of Its Own? - Thu 19 Sep @ State Library of NSW
• People, Politics and Pop - Sun 22 Sep @ State Library of NSW
