Newcastle’s flagship arts festival New Annual is back with a vibrant showcase of performances that will suit all ages and tastes.

In 2021, the event attracted in excess of 30,000 people, supporting more than 500 artists and 250 staff, crew and volunteers, as well as a strong increase in occupancy rates and revenue among local accommodation providers.

And, organisers are expecting those figures to be even stronger this time around.

Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes admitted the 2022 program was eclectic and ambitious.

“We are thrilled to once again deliver this amazing arts and cultural event in September,” she said.

“It will allow locals and visitors to discover a new side of Newcastle as they witness the spirit and energy of our city and its creative community during the festival.”

New Annual features Hunter and nationally-renowned artists delivering a mix of free, ticketed and family-friendly events.

The breadth of the program is highlighted by its 14 headline acts including Colossus, a contemporary dance performance created by well-known Australian choreographer Stephanie Lake; This Land, a musical showcase of award-winning and acclaimed First Nations performers; and Radial, presented by Hunter Central Coast Development Corporation.

Other areas of the city will be transformed, with installations such as a purpose-built stage in Civic Park and the architecturally-designed Pavilion of Sand in Wheeler Place.

Cr Nelmes said the second edition, starting this weekend, would be a major drawcard for the city.

“The inaugural New Annual, staged in early 2021, was embraced by the Newcastle community,” she stated.

“It provided an important economic boost across the arts, hospitality and tourism sectors, while also celebrating and showcasing our creative side.”

The full New Annual program and ticket sales are available online at www.newannual.com

2022 New Annual highlights

COLOSSUS

• VENUE: Civic Theatre
• DATES: 23 September (8pm)
• 24 September (2pm, 8pm)
• COST: $49

Colossus is a contemporary dance performance created by internationally-renowned Australian choreographer Stephanie Lake.

The exhilarating show features riveting and hypnotic dance work, by Sydney Dance Company’s pre-professional and local artists, which explores relationships between the individual and the collective, with a cast of 50 performing as one on the Civic Theatre stage – all in the name of synchronicity.

From darkness they emerge, a dizzying mass of pulsating bodies. The push and pull of humanity are embodied by this heaving throng of life, but can a crowd be more than the sum of its parts? As complex patterns ripple through the flood of figures, a single movement triggers a chain reaction wheeling the fragile whole from chaos to order.

TITAN ARUM

• VENUE: 164 Hunter Street
• DATES: 23 September (exhibition 10am – 5pm; performance 7.30pm)
• 24 -25 September (exhibition 10am – 5pm; performances 6pm, 7.30pm)
• 29 September – 2 October (exhibition 10am – 5pm; performances 6pm, 7.30pm)
• COST: Free

Presented by the Newcastle Art Gallery, Justin Shoulder’s Titan Arum ignites your imagination with this exotic performance in a landscape both familiar and alien. A sensory ceremony of dance, light and sound in a communal garden with hanging fruits and carnivorous plants, the immersive installation work will also be activated with “live” shows throughout the festival.

Continuing Shoulder’s interests in evolution and hybridity, Titan Arum births beings of ambiguity. Are they pollinator, parasite or host? 

Witness elaborate craft meets uncanny puppetry and the language of diasporic queer clubland. Suitable for all ages.

MOUNTAIN: STALKER THEATRE/BOX OF BIRDS

• VENUE: Civic Park Stage
• DATES: 23 September (7pm, 8.30pm)
• 24 September (7pm, 8.30pm)
• 25 September (7pm, 8.30pm)
• COST: $49

Immerse yourself in this family-friendly captivating aerial acrobatic spectacle and witness the interaction between performance and real-time responsive technology. Stalker Theatre’s production Mountain wows crowds with its four performers seamlessly melding acrobatics, innovative, physical and visual displays… and asks us to re-examine our love of the Australian bush.

After the 25-minute performance, kids and adults are invited to rediscover the environment, wildlife and the relationship to it as the stage is transformed into an interactive Australian habitat.

THIS LAND

• VENUE: Civic Park Stage
• DATE: 28 September (5pm)
• COST: $25

Unite with friends and family to celebrate the return of This Land, a First Nations celebration of the sound, soul and spirit of the numerous nations in this country.

There are many voices that shape this nation, but none stronger and more connected as the First Peoples.

Song lines are a form of communication passed down from generation to generation, shaping the original nations and identity of where we call home.

In 2022, we acknowledge This Land’s biggest year yet, highlighting a handful of award-winning and acclaimed First Nations musicians, curated by Jacob Ridgeway and featuring Tasman Keith (pictured), The Last Kinection, YNG Martyr, Cloe Terare, Loren Ryan, Mr Rhodes, Djanaba and MC Andy Saunders.

They are shaping the voices of the next generation to come.

DEEJAY X DANCER: NICK POWER

• VENUE: Newcastle Museum
• DATES: 29 September (7.30pm)
• 30 September (6pm)
• 1 October (7.30pm)
• COST: $39

Inspired by the legendary block parties of 1970’s New York, Sydney-based choreographer Nick Power (Two Crews, Between Tiny Cities) pays tribute to hip hop’s origins.

Lining the edge of the stage, the audience will be brought in close to the action to create a powerful and intimate space for the showdown.

Featuring world champion turntablist DJ Total Eclipse (AB Original, Funkoars) with three of Australia’s most respected breakers – Anastasios Repousi, Justice Crew member and winner of Australia’s Got Talent; Jackson Garcia, member of Skill at Will and Team Cream; and legendary Australian B*girl Demi Sorono.

Deejay x Dancer walks the tightrope of live performance in a thrilling call and response showdown, highlighting the skill, playfulness and connection between these two traditional hip hop forms.

LIGHTYEARS FROM HOME – THE SCI FI SPECTACULAR EXTENDED UNIVERSE PT III

• VENUE: Civic Park Stage
• DATES: 29 September (7pm)
• 30 September (7pm)
• COST: $25

Part-park party, part-cabaret and part-epic multimedia spectacular, Lightyears From Home combines a smattering of high-impact elements and fun interactive moments of the Integalacular Sci Fi show. Get dressed up in your finest Sci Fi party finery to join the silent disco DJ sets, high skill physical acts and projection mapping performances set in, and on, a real life full-sized spaceship.

Created by XYZ Dimensions from upcycled industrial waste materials, the spaceship has only been seen twice before in all of Australia and is, now, landing in Newcastle. Catch it before it takes off again back into deep outer space.

EX MACHINA: OMEGA ENSEMBLE

• VENUE: Newcastle Museum
• DATES: 30 September (7pm)
• 1 October (6pm, 8.30pm)
• COST: $49

Hailed as one of Australia’s most exciting and forward-thinking ensembles, Omega Ensemble returns to New Annual for a heart-racing program of music from important contemporary voices, including Bryce Dessner, Missy Mazzoli, Alex Turley and with two exciting world premieres from Nico Muhly and Christopher Cerrone.

Presenting the ensemble as a well-oiled virtuosic machine, this performance departs from the traditional concert hall for a one-of-a-kind experience at Newcastle Museum, with the collection’s prized 150-year-old locomotive, The Buck, serving as a monolithic backdrop to this high-impact musical event.

EPOCH WARS: PONY EXPRESS

• VENUE: Newcastle City Hall
• DATE: 1 October (2.30pm-6pm)
• COST: $39

For one show only. What should we call a future worth fighting for? Epoch Wars is a seismic, anarchic, immersive adventure camouflaged as a conference; a festival of deep-time ideas where you get to decide on the name for our geological era. Earth’s history is divided into massive slabs of time called “epochs”. Right now, a contest is raging over our slice, to re-label it the “Anthropocene”- the age of human impact. But the “Anthropocene” blames all of us for Earth’s dire circumstances rather than the corporations, CEOs, and top dogs in charge. Infiltrating Newcastle City Hall, Epoch Wars enlists you and a Live Art army of Australia’s most exciting artists and speakers to battle it out over the naming rights of our shared future. The geological just got personal.