Community Arts Inc.

2008 Zig Zag Festival

Was held on

SUNDAY 26th October 2008

The 2008 Kalamunda Zig Zag Festival was held on Sunday again this year.

The Festival in Stirk Park ran from 11:00am till 8:00pm .  The first day of daylight saving ...  This year we attraced more people from all over Western Australia than ever before to attend this wonderful day. 

Kalaborate in '08. 

The Zig Zag Festival is an annual community-based celebration that this year is focussed on building and nurturing scores of creative partnerships and collaborations in the local community. The collaborations will celebrate the rich cultural life in the Hills – the musicians, visual artists, dancers and creative community artisans in all areas of the arts. 

Every year the Zig Zag Festival attracts thousands of locals and visitors to Kalamunda, to enjoy this vibrant community event. A growing number of schools, community groups, local artists, and community service groups will all contribute to the excitement and diversity of Festval Day.

Zig Zag Community Arts held a number of pre-festival workshops and activities in the run-up to the festival day, these included:

• The Smarter than Smoking Hedge Bandits Junk Music Project was an amazing mixture of music making and musical instrument making - involving both wind and percussion instruments. This collaboration brought artists to the community for workshops to make musical instruments in time to join in the festival parade.
  
• In the second Smarter Than Smoking collaboration, The Hedge Bandits teamed up with the Madjitil Moorna Choir and other singers.  There were specific songs developed for the parade and the Festival concert finale performance, and the combined choirs rehearsed Monday evenings from 25 August until the festival. 
  
• Poi twirling, juggling and staff twirling was another set of workshops for younger people that featured on festival day and in the festival parade. Workshops took place on Monday afternoons at the Kalamunda Agricultural Hall.
• Kalamunda Youth Band Nights ran during the September school holidays, Saturday 27 September saw local youth musicians take over the Kalamunda Town Square Community Hall (in Barber Street opposite the Post Office) from 6pm.  Acts from these band nights went on to perform  at the Festival on the Youth Stage in Stirk Park
  
• The Madjitil Moorna Choir continues to develop and holds its rehearsals Monday Evenings every week in Forestfield.
  
• Zig Zag Music nights have been introduced to get the closet musicians among us back into playing the music ourselves. Weekly workshops that teach and nurture music making skills have started on Wednesday evenings. A mix of folk, klezmer and traditional acoustic music has brought out skills long dormant. Members of the group performed on Festival day - look out for Black Chook Chutney on the Rotary Checkerboard Stage.  And thiese workhops will continue on Wednesday nights after the festival.
  

The Zig Zag Festival is still known as one of the few remaining locally-based community arts festivals.  Local crafts, local entertainment, community workshops, and schools projects all contribute to the day of celebration.

The Hills Area around the Shire of Kalamunda has always had a real village culture, and a sense of community you can sense even as a visitor.  Stimulating the creativity of a community like this to do exciting and new things can produce amazing results, this year we are hoping to open up new collaborations that will foster lasting creativity. 

The Parade

This year the evening Festival Parade started at 6:00pm and wound its way through the main shopping precinct of Kalamunda on Haynes Street finishing at Stirk Park at 6:30.  This is always a big highlight for hundreds of people who come to see and join in the fun along the main street of Kalamunda. In the Parade this year we had the Chameleon Brass Marching Band, the Gooseberry Hill Primary school kids in 50's contume, Kalamunda Swimming Club, the Kalamunda Heritage History Vilage volunteers came in costume on vintage bicycles, the Poi twirlers sparkled all the way, the Kalamunda Playgroup came as a School of Fish, and the Hedgebandits Horns and drums marched together making a huge noise.

If your school or community group would like to collaborate in a future parade, please contact Jo Randell.

The Parade arrived in the park to herald the start of the Festival Finale Concert. 

Arts and Craft stalls

Arts and Craft Stalls where producers can sell and display their wares have been a popular feature of the festival. This was your chance to buy something really special - maybe a hand-made Chrismas present for someone special.  The variety and the quality this year was outstanding.

Food Stalls

Every year the food stalls provide great variety of foods, and of course fresh coffee prepared by experts.

Newsletter
the latest newsletter is the September 2008 edition of the Zig Zag Scribble (PDF 1.3 Meg file)

Zig Zag Community Arts Inc.

We are a not for profit group run by volunteers to promote the arts and community action in the hills and foothills communities roughly within the Shire of Kalamunda. We are an incorporated group, (registered as deductable gift recipient for GST).

The Kalamunda Zig Zag Community Arts Festival began in the early 1980's as a local Shire initiative. During the first 10 years of its existence, responsibility gradually shifted to the community, until 1993 when the Festival Committee became a separate entity as a community-based non-profit group.

Between 1994 and 1998, the focus of the Festival Committee was on events and activities for the one-day festival. Since then there has been an increased emphasis on gaining input from youth.

Zig Zag Community Arts has taken on a broad community development role with extended programs that involve many sectors of the community. These have included youth programs that extend throughout the year. The change occurred with the recognition of the value of the Festival and the Arts as tools for addressing social and community issues.

The committee consists entirely of volunteers.  They are community members with a broad range of skills including community development, project management and youth work.  Throughout the year project teams coordinate art and music workshops that involve both professionals and gifted amateurs. 

The Aim of Zig Zag Community Arts is to involve the community in the appreciation of, and participation in community arts.

Many Thanks to our 2008 Festival Sponsors

MAJOR SPONSORS

Local Sponsors