OzAsia Festival 2024 celebrated its seventeenth year with more than 200,000 attendances across over 100 ticketed and free events over three spectacular weeks. In one of its most successful years ever, the festival concluded last Sunday night with a mighty roar, when internationally renowned Australian hip hop artist, L-FRESH The Lion closed out OzAsia Festival 2024 with an electrifying performance on the OzAsia Festival Stage at Lucky Dumpling Market.
Running from October 24 to November 10, OzAsia Festival showcased the very best of Asian and Asian Australian contemporary art and culture across music, dance, theatre, comedy, visual art, community events, food, literature and more. The festival featured more than 400 local, national and international artists from 12 countries and included seven world premieres, four Australian premieres and nine Adelaide premieres. 730 local community members shared their culture through performances and workshops at free community events. Sold out ticketed shows included Parvyn’s Maujuda, Dyan Tai’s Permaisuri, The Errors Tour, Qais Essar, The Special Comedy Comedy Special and Por Por’s Big Fat Surprise Wedding.
OzAsia Festival also celebrated record-breaking opening week attendances of over 106,000 across the first four days of performances and community events including Taylor Sheesh and her two sold out The Errors Tour shows plus family favourite Moon Lantern Trail which attracted more than 42,000 attendees and dazzled Adelaide with the spectacular new Hong Kong Dragon lantern.
Adelaide Festival Centre CEO & Artistic Director Douglas Gautier AM: “My congratulations to Joon-Yee Kwok and the team on the incredible success of this year’s OzAsia Festival. In its seventeenth year, OzAsia Festival continues to culturally connect artists and audiences through the arts, and it was so wonderful to celebrate that connection with so many people who came out to enjoy this year’s festival.”
On the final weekend, November 8 to 10, writing, culture and creativity were celebrated with a series of thought-provoking panels, dynamic discussions and captivating performances at OzAsia Festival’s Weekend of Words. Featuring an extraordinary lineup of novelists, journalists, poets, playwrights, performers and screenwriters from across Australia and Asia and curated by multi-award-winning writer and comedian Sami Shah, visitors were welcomed to the theatres and foyers of Dunstan Playhouse to engage, reflect and be inspired.
Audiences roared with laughter too in the final weekend with sold out shows at Por Por’s Big Fat Surprise Wedding and The Special Comedy Comedy Special with MC Jason Chong. Plus, the ever popular and always hilarious Closing Night Debate saw teams captained by Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa and Jennifer Wong take to the Dunstan Playhouse stage to defend the delicious, Chinese Food vs Indian Food. This not so serious culinary crusade saw Jennifer and Team Indian Food take out the win.
At the festival’s final weekend, comedian and broadcaster Jason Chong was presented with the inaugural OzAsia Legend Award which honours Asian Australian trailblazers whose work amplifies Asian Australian representation in the arts, entertainment and media.
OzAsia Festival Artistic Director and Executive Producer Joon-Yee Kwok: “I was so thrilled to see so many people coming together with their families and friends to experience OzAsia Festival this year. Thank you for embracing the festival so warmly and with so much love, especially in my first year as OzAsia Festival Artistic and Executive Producer. Seeing your smiles, hearing your laughter and applause, and dancing with you, was simply wonderful. Thank you for celebrating with us.
“I would also like to thank all the talented artists who shared their amazing stories and creations, the community groups who generously shared their culture with us, and the extraordinary OzAsia Festival and Adelaide Festival Centre teams who brought the festival to life.
“And last but not least, I would like to congratulate Jason Chong, winner of the 2024 OzAsia Legend Award. Jason truly embodies the spirit of OzAsia Festival.
“OzAsia Festival 2024 has been a fantastic celebration of art, culture and community. I look forward to welcoming you back in 2025.”
Lucky Dumpling Market proved once again to be a crowd favourite and due to popular demand, it will stay open for a further five bonus nights from tonight Wednesday November 13 to Sunday 17 November. The free family friendly entertainment will continue too at the OzAsia Festival Stage with some of South Australia’s best musicians and DJs set to perform including Koleh on Thursday November 14, San Ureshi on Friday November 15, Tushar on Saturday November 16 and Elizabeth Ruyi and DJ Seratonia closing out the Lucky Dumpling Market on Sunday November 17.
The Hon. Andrea Michaels MP, Minister for Arts: “Congratulations to the team at Adelaide Festival Centre for presenting such a successful OzAsia Festival. It has been wonderful to see South Australians coming together to celebrate the very best in Asian and Asian Australian arts and culture across so many varied events.”
Art lovers can still catch a number of OzAsia Festival exhibitions including Reuniting Cargoes and Vivian Ho’s Wish You were Here, Jessie Hui’s Hello How am I ? andSaree Selections until November 16 and Jingwei Bu’s Life Maps and Phuong Ngo: An Action for Mourning until November 30. Check the OzAsia Festival website for opening times.
