The Festival Director's Guide to New Annual : Weekend One

Hello and welcome to New Annual 2025!

I have fallen in love with Newcastle since moving here recently and see this Festival as my love letter to Newcastle – I hope you do too.

One of the first things I wanted to program were stories of the Newcastle Ocean Baths, and using that incredible backdrop for performance. I couldn’t be prouder of Meet Me at the Baths – the site-specific theatre production by Whale Chorus and Ang Collins or the incredible free music program SOAK: Live at the Baths that Tim Levinson (Urthboy) has curated with input from Matt Field and Kat Skoumbas. Whilst you are at the Baths you can see the gorgeous exhibition of photographs The Bathers by Edwina Richards and Lee Illfield.

There is so much on offer over the first weekend, so dive right in! Here are some of the shows and talks that you don’t want to miss.
Tory Loudon, Festival Director

First Night Art Party kicks off the festival on Friday night with free music and performances, art workshops and beautiful art projections on the Newcastle Art Gallery and Laman St. Come and join the fun with high energy sets by Haiku Hands, Kira Puru and Devaura along with other special guest performances. If you want to keep the party going, you can then go to the 9pm show of La Ronde at Spiegeltent in Civic Park.  

Kick off your weekend with Meet Me at the Baths on Saturday morning at 11am to experience this brand-new outdoor theatre show at Newcastle Ocean Baths, and then have a dip before heading to The Lock-Up for artist Karla Dickens' exhibition and talk from 1pm – 3pm – free chips and even hotter topics! Karla is a superstar of the art world and this is her first solo exhibition in Newcastle. For more free visual arts – pop into Watt Space Gallery for their exhibition launch of Bio Assembly at 4pm.

Over the weekend you can pick a showing of POV by re:group collective – the cast of actors change for each performance - it's a real life lucky dip! This is a really special show I have seen a few times - highly recommended. I love that it tells the tale of a family through the eyes of the teenage daughter, she controls the narrative and is determined to get to the truth of what is going on with her family – something her parents are trying to shield from her. A great conversation starter – take your teenagers, take your parents and enjoy unpacking family dynamics for hours afterwards! 

On Sunday you need to set aside a few hours for the public art trail as you’ll want to join in the fun at the mini putt putt golf course created by the two wild imaginations of artists Rosie Deacon and Jen Denzin. Then you can go to Jen’s shipping container at Camp Shortland for her equally whimsical and absurd Argo Escargot installation. Pop into the other shipping containers for Diana Chester and Damien Ricketson’s evocative Listen to a Starfish and Heidi Axelsen and Hugo Moline’s Anchor – a camera obscura that flips your perspective.

Catch a breath, eat some food, have another dip and then head back to Newcastle Ocean Baths for Sunday night sunset and SOAK featuring Dobby, Tom Thum and Freyja Garbett – a love letter to the Ocean featuring a mix of beatboxing, jazz, field recordings and more, this will be a special one off – say you were there! Bring a picnic.

This is just a taste of what is on offer on the first weekend – so take your vitamin c, pack your snacks and get ready for 10 days of fun filled adventures. Enjoy!

PS: for those that missed out on Dancefloor Conversion Therapy tickets you can still go to the Bernie’s Bar laneway party on Saturday night – come after seeing Dust at the Baths or Spooky Men’s Chorale at the Civic Theatre.