If you crave adventure, have time on your hands, money in the bank and are interested in the arts you could very well be, a cultural tourist. Wanting much more than sightseeing and shopping or indulging in beach bathing, this type of consumer dreams of a culturally themed vacation and seeks companionship with like-minded people.
It’s the kind of yearning that cannot be satisfied with any amount of lying on the beach wrestling with a pile of sand kissed, dog-eared paperbacks, cranking up a barbeque to sizzle sausages or snoozing under a palm tree.
More than relaxation those in their 50s and 60s are more likely to desire cultural and intellectual stimulation, with their days no longer governed by daily professional routines. And apparently, it’s a time to reach for new horizons. Evidence suggests that holidaymakers, in rapid succession, are switching across different types of experiences. Someone seeking a walk along the beach one day, may be seeking an art gallery the next, a sporting day after that and a visit to a nature park the day after. Australia’s tourism and arts industries are now designing vacation packages for this new breed of traveller. The world tourism organisation estimates that cultural tourism accounts for 37 per cent of world travel and as a niche market, it is growing at a rate of 15 per cent a year.
Cultural tourism in Australia is booming. In case you are wondering, this kind of tourism is directed towards arts events in a special location. The idea is to attract opera, theatre, and art or music lovers by offering a mixed bag of activities that includes a central arts focus. Orchestras and opera companies, savvy arts councils and music graduates all keen to cultivate performance opportunities are leaping onto the bandwagon of this new trend.
A quick survey across the country reveals a plethora of music festivals from folk, blues, classical, chamber music, classical or country. These are often in regional areas. Australia’s populations tend to huddle in major cities, and in recent years state governments have offered incentives for city centres to connect with surrounding regions. This has inspired the expansion of ‘artstourism’. It is easy to see the attraction. Tourists, musicians and local councils are all advantaged by these win-win-win enterprises. The influx of visitors shop; eat in local cafes; restaurants; travel in taxis; ride on public transport; check out sightseeing attractions and create human interest of local populations.
With economies boosted as well as a sense of pride which also develops with a new identity, there is cause for excitement in the community. In three decades, Tamworth’s Country Music Festival has achieved worldwide acknowledgement, and is one of the prime settings for this genre. The tenday event attracts 50,000 visitors and there’s a similar success story attached to the festivals held annually in Queenscliff and Port Fairy in Victoria.
The practice of local authorities using an arts event as part of economic reforms is a common recurrence nationwide. On a huge scale, the most successful creations are those linked to mega-events such as the Olympic Games. However smaller programs relating to books, comedy, film and roots music, such as in Byron Bay’s ‘BluesFest’ are also considered popular recreational and culturally substantial tourism attracting forums.
Last year, I was lucky enough to be invited to the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s ‘Mendelssohn Festival’. TSO’s management was trialing an arts package that involved concerts of Mendelssohn’s masterpieces, a couple of cocktail parties at Hobart’s Henry Jones Art Hotel preceding each performance and an exclusive tour of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. On the last day, a spectacular brunch was held at the Hotel Grand Chancellor. The menu boasted a scrumptious array of seafood. As all the interstate punters were attending the same set of concerts and exploring Hobart’s market and shopping precincts there was plenty to talk about. Conversations flowed as easily as the Hotel’s classy Tasmanian wines.
Not so long ago, the TSO mounted a performance of Beethoven’s blockbuster Ninth Symphony at the bleak former prison settlement of Port Arthur. Imagine this symphony, famously regarded as a musical salute to freedom and liberty, blazing its idealistic message onto a wind brushed landscape haunted by chilling cruelties, grief and despair.
Needless to say this performance made a huge impact. As an advocate of tourism with music at its heart, the TSO’s conductor Sebastian Lang- Lessing says that Tasmania is an ideal destination for the culturally hungry. He cites the culinary delights, the wild beauty of the scenery, the artistic legacy, its craft and its unique history.
Classical musicians have long been aware that the tradition can have stuffy overtones. It can seem particularly-serious and remote, and as a result many individuals think that they need to be gifted or have a musical passport to be able to enjoy it. The truth is very different, and at last the industry is trying to tackle this common misperception. Musicians are striving to blow the cobwebs away by increasing opportunities for the audience to meet the conductors, players and composers in a variety of social forums, in a bid to humanise the art form.
James Beck, co-artistic director of the Flametree Festival at Bundanon, in Arthur’s Boyd’s tranquil isolated estate in NSW, says “…there was a vibe that was distinctly Bundanon, perhaps not known about except by those deeply involved in the arts scene. This was one thought that prompted Heidi Jones and I to initiate ‘the Flametree’ for sure, but apart from that, I don’t like concert halls. Such venues encourage an unnatural division between performer and listener and smack of social strata, formality, containment and the menace of air-conditioning.”
Arguably, one of the most exciting examples of cultural tourism is Townsville’s ten day Australian Festival of Chamber Music in North Queensland from the 3-12 of July. Initiated eighteen years ago by the conductor Ted Kuchar, whose vision was to cultivate interest in chamber music, market the Townsville winter’s balmy Mediterranean temperatures, along with its tropical location being on the cusp of the Barrier Reef. The idea was to lure visitors from Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and overseas. It worked. Every July the town literally swarms with matureage music lovers hungry for worldclass concerts and for dance and theatrical performances. Interstate patrons flock to Townsville every winter. Many are repeat visitors.
Every attempt is made to integrate the performances and recitals within the tropical location. There are twilight recitals on Magnetic Island, master-classes with festival artists at Townsville’s Perc Tucker Gallery, culinary celebrations with musical interludes on the Strand and even a series of talks about the local environment’s wildlife for the ecologically minded.
“Where chamber music meets the barrier reef” is a catchy slogan bandied about in the media but it certainly creates a graphic picture of the festival’s charms. Several years ago, I watched a memorable masterclass taken by a distinguished American cellist in the Museum of Tropical Queensland. A student performed a Bach Cello Suite against the extraordinary backdrop of a vast aquarium in which a restless hammerhead circled.
Beck says that, “A festival is a celebration not only of the music, but the location, musicians and the attendees. There’s a possibility of cultivating new attitudes to classical music, enabling people to experience music in a fresh light because their senses are excited by different scenery.” Piers Lane the recently appointed Artistic Director of the AFCM agrees that listening to music in unusual contexts encourages listening to music in a new way, and perhaps at a deeper level. He finds scheduling concerts in smaller venues within Townsville a good idea. The intimacy of these spaces is more appropriate for chamber music, a genre that was originally intended for cosy soirees in the drawing rooms of wealthy domestic houses.
Taking this idea to extremes, Lane, just as previous Directors Kuchar and Chris Latham have done, curates an ‘Outback Tour’ of North Queensland to precede each year’s Festival. There are around twenty places for tourists to tag along and witness the fun as the musicians, and a string quartet accompanied by didjeridu specialist William Barton, give performances as well as workshops in the oddest places. One year, I witnessed the Fyra Quartet and Barton perform 5kms down a mineshaft at the Cannington Mine in hard hats and orange boiler suits. Debussy’s swirling impressionistic music sounded magical in this cavernous, industrial chamber against the looming backdrop of girders and steel.
In the Boodjamulla National Park, a sun-hat wearing audience of campers, bird watchers, travellers and appreciative park rangers huddled against various rocks to listen to the meditative, nature-inspired “Tyalgum Mantras” by Australian composer Ross Edwards. It was a perfect soundscape for the setting and especially so when a troupe of Bowerbirds began an impromptu chorus of squawks.
Outdoor settings create different challenges for such performers. They need to rethink where to stand or position their instruments for the most optimal sound-projection. Those in the tour-party became sensitised to some of the ‘realities’ involved as the players battled with wind-zapped sheet music. Performance tactics have to be constantly changed and those adaptations were often discussed on the coaches or tiny planes, heading for the next location. This annual enterprise helps to promote classical repertoire in remote areas and has certainly expanded expectations of Queensland as a destination. These factors, are simple reminder that the sunshine state is more than just sun, sand, and sea.
This year’s ‘Outback Tour’ runs from the 27th June to the 1st July. Highlights include a trip to Cloncurry, Ernest Henry Mine, Mt Isa, Normanton and Karumba. Stops will be made at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse, the Quamby Pub and include a ride on the famous Gulflander the ‘old tin hare’. The Euphoria Quartet and Barton will also be providing the music.
About this year’s festival program Lane says, “There’s just masses of variety. We are offering 28 concerts and there really is something for everyone. Inclusivity is so important. Several concerts are combining with poetry, drama and dance and that’s quite aside from the recitals of French, German and Russian repertoire.
It’s not just music either. The ‘Chef’s North’ will open the festival. It’s a culinary treat with musical interludes. Local chefs and five chefs from right across Australia are cooking a gourmet six-course feast. The Goldner Quartet, soprano Patricia Wright and Barton are the accompanying entertainment. And for a second time, we have entered into a collaboration with Dance North in a dynamic production of ‘Remember Me’ with movement and visual projection.
Lane’s 50 part ‘Piano Series’ that won him rave reviews, according to comments he made in a warm conversational-style interview for the UK’s BBC. In the AFCM’s scheduled ‘Conversations with Piers Lane’ audiences have the opportunity to learn more about their favourite artists. Lane is interviewing Carl Vine, this year’s composer-inresidence and Jack Liebeck, a player from the London based ensemble the ‘Fibonnachi Sequence.’
“As it is the centenary of Messiaen’s birth there is a special performance of this composer’s magnificent ‘Quartet From The End of Time’. It was written when he was incarcerated in a concentration camp. A play by UK author Jessica Duchen, ‘A Walk Through the End of Time’ that precedes the musical performance will throw fresh insights onto the ideas behind Messiaen’s wonderful piece. It’s an example of how we are presenting programs in an accessible way,” says Lane.
This festival has become so integrated into the Townsville community, a local taxi driver said to Lane: “…no one can even get married around here unless they hire a string quartet for the occasion.” Truly an entertaining initiative that has impressed the locals, thrilled the interstate and international musicians, enchanted patrons and helped transform a town in the process. It’s certainly worth a look.
Article provided by The Retiree Magazine