When your Boomerang won’t come back
After a successful debut in 2013, Boomerang Festival, held as an independent event on the Bluesfest site, was nominated for the Best New Event at the 2014 Australian Events Awards and Best Indigenous Tourism for the 2014 NSW State Tourism Awards.
The festival includes dance, weaving, carving, talks and ideas, workshops, music, and authentic cultural exchanges between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. Despite resounding critical, industry and audience acclaim, Boomerang was unable to secure funding in order to present in the same format this year.
Recognising the importance of this ground-breaking event, Bluesfest director Peter Noble and his team have been working with Boomerang Festival director Rhoda Roberts to ensure it survives and thrives despite a temporary obstacle, and invites audiences and the wider community to join them in celebrating and supporting this wonderful local event.
To this end the Boomerang Festival is in its final weeks of a crowdfunding campaign and is hoping the northern rivers public will contribute.
Byron Shire mayor Simon Richardson has just joined with Archie Roach, Paul Kelly, and Troy Brady in doing a video of support.
Boomerang festival organisers are asking the progressive, forward-thinking leaders and members of our community to support them in their mission to make the NSW northern rivers leaders in this positive change for all Australians.
www.indiegogo.com/projects/boomerang-indigenous-arts-culture-festival
School of Art is where it’s at
Byron School of Art (BSA) is very excited to be launching into 2016 with not one, not two, but three year-long courses
There are still a few places left in the second- and third-year courses, so if you have some experience or previous study in the arts and would like to delve deeper, get in touch ASAP.
If you’re wanting to get down and get creative without such a big commitment, check out all the short courses and weekend workshops we have planned so far including printmaking, drawing, screenprinting, encaustic and abstraction.
BSA’s dedicated and talented teaching staff have plenty in store for 2016. Please visit the BSA website for more information. www.byronschoolofart.com
We love you, Hughesy
An hour spent in the company of Dave Hughes has one of the highest laugh rates per minute you will ever experience at a standup comedy show.
If you haven’t seen Dave onstage yet, you would definitely have seen him as a host of Network Ten’s The Project and Before The Game and this year you can see him as the new host of Nine Network’s Australia’s Got Talent.
It’s an accepted fact that Dave Hughes is a bloody funny guy but you’ll never know how funny until you see him live. Hughesy is unbeatable onstage, mic in hand, telling joke after joke to the rooms he fills across the world. He’s never been better than he is right now.
In Byron Bay for one night only! Byron Bay Theatre this Saturday, 7pm – $35.
Visionary art at Starseed Gardens
Visionary Art will be a major focus in Byron next week, at the second annual Somara Shamanic Medicine Forum at Starseed Gardens. With artists coming from all over Australia and around the world this in an amazing opportunity to directly see into the extra levels of awareness that visionary states can bring. The Visionary Art Space will be exhibiting works from Luis Tamani (Peru), Daniel Mirante (UK), Lily Moses, Paulie Mann, Katia Honor, Bryan Itch and special guests.
Watch live painting demos, browse the original artworks and prints for sale in the marketplace and listen to a panel discussion on the idea that entheogens can lead to profound artistic expression, and that art itself can be an entheogen.
This year Somara is running a Visionary Art Intensive with Peruvian artist Luis Tamani, whose astounding work often depicts the interior of Amazonian plant medicine experiences. Participants can join in 12 hours of tuition over three days with this world-renowned artist.
Food and drink are available at The Lotus Teahouse. A full program featuring international and local speakers, panelists and a variety of experiential workshops. Visit somara.org to view the event program and follow facebook.com/somara.org for updates.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
