FAMILIAR Footscray faces will be a key feature of this year’s Emerge Festival as two popular performers play a central part in the event.
Traditional singer Bitsat Seyoum is familiar to many via her Ethiopian restaurant Addis Abeba on Nicholson Street, Footscray. She runs it with her husband Tesfaye – also an actor, writer and director.
Seyoum will perform on Sunday, June 17, as part of the ‘Emerge Festival Main Event’, which is held in and around Fitzroy Town Hall, focusing on three performance stages.
Back for a ninth time, the festival will feature music and markets from around the world, cultural workshops, a storytelling circle and children’s activities.
Another firm Footscray favourite, Anbessa Gebrehiwot, will also join the main event.
Gebrehiwot has been performing traditional Ethiopian music for more than 20 years. The talented singer and composer plays two of Ethiopia’s most iconic traditional instruments, the masenko (one-string violin) and kirar (lute).
On Thursday, June 21, Seyoum will perform with Laneway Funk at the Melbourne Recital Centre. She will join the soul, funk and reggae outfit to perform a number of Ethiopian Amharic songs about love and some traditional songs about life and its cycles.
The Emerge Festival is from June 1-July 31.
Details: multiculturalarts.com.au
