Fringe Festival fires up in Footscray

Robin Laurie, Peta Murray and Heather Horrocks bring Missa Pro Venerabilibus to Footscray for Melbourne Fringe Festival. Photo: Rachel Main

Night walks, paste-up art, dance, music and a ‘secular mass for the ageing’ come to Footscray with this month’s Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Footscray Community Arts Centre will be the epicentre of fortnight-long festivities.

Events include Missa Pro Venerabilibus, a collaboration of older women including Robin Laurie, Peta Murray and Heather Horrocks.

The centre will also host élan, a double-bill of contemporary dance, as well as sound and movement work Low-Fi Bedroom Rock, experimental music ensemble The Phonetic Orchestra and the absurdist tales of Bo Svoronos in Myoklonik.

Further afield, Walking with Strangers walks four sites along two streets in Footscray through sound, video projection and performance.

Corps In Situ by artist Aline Brugel is a paste-up of 15 life-size images of locals in boxes.

Free events include Seddon’s literary impresario Bruno Lettieri in conversation with Yarraville author Janice Simpson, and Thread west – serial stitcher, by Yarraville needlepoint artist Jessie Deane paying homage to Melbourne’s west.

Windmills in Motion honours artist Frans Houkes, while AMES Australia’s youth classes exhibit lino printing artworks from workshops led by Melbourne visual artist Joanne Mott.

The Melbourne Fringe Festival will include more than 400 events from September 15 to October 2.

Details: Melbourne Fringe Festival