Why It's Set To Be One of PIAF's Biggest 2016 Events

It could never be said that the Perth International Arts Festival has ever shied away from grand undertakings and this year's opening gambit, Home, is as big as they've ever gotten.

"I'm in the calm before the storm right now," says project Event Producer, Olivia Ansell, "but it's going to be quite an exciting story, with all the elements that have to come together."

Home will feature 500 performers onstage, set against a 60-metre-long cinematic backdrop, with five three-storey houses, all presented across Langley Park. 'Big' doesn't cover it...

"Well the staging structure is extraordinary," says Ansell. "I mean it's overwhelming the size of the stage set - there's five stages spanning a panorama. The majesty of the set and size of the animation being projected onto it is truly huge and epic. Today we had six sound desks arrive - the sound rig alone looks like you're at an AC/DC concert! That was a reminder that, 'oh yes, this is a big show'.

"There's 100 musicians onstage - 30 in the choir and 70 in the orchestra. There's a house band within that of course. The featured artists and rock'n'roll bands as well are on stage so it's an extraordinary scale, plus there's 5,000 lanterns being brought to the park by children from schools all across Perth to the event. They've made lanterns about what home means to them."

So yes, it's a big undertaking and it's been undertaken for quite some time indeed.

"After The Giants and other great international works graced the stages, streets and laneways of Perth  last year the new Artistic Director, Wendy Martin,  wanted to hone in on the opportunity for PIAF to reflect on its own community, tell local stories  and find the richness in it," Ansell explains. "When you move to a new city and you come here to deliver a festival for four years, the first thing you want to know is the culture, the history, the people, the talents, the stories. So she delved into that and discovered an embarrassment of riches.

"She me the wonderful Richard Walley, who is of course such a great advocate for the Noongar Community and the stories started to germinate, then along with long-term collaborator Nigel Jamieson, whom she worked with at the Sydney Opera House on a piece called Honour Bound. He's something of a master builder on a grand scale having done the Sydney Olympics and the Manchester Games, he's quite adept at this scale of work.

"Together they started researching into the stories of WA and the stories of Perth. And with (artists) Zoe Atkinson and Sohan Hayes the show is a woven narrative starting with a Welcome - and it's an iconic anniversary of Welcome, being four years since the first one with Ernie Dingo and Richard Walley. It then moves through the progression of society, weaving hands and looking at things like settlement of the state and through the eras and into the 20th century Pre and Post World War II, the migrant communities who have moved to Perth and are responsible for the beauty and diversity of culture that runs through this city, with artists like Vicky Ramakrishna, Kavisha Mazella, Tara Tiba and Grace Barbe.

"And moving through to now, with the environment and climate change, Tim Winton contributing and talking about why we must look after the land; as echoed by John Butler, as echoed by the sentiments of hundreds of schoolchildren which will be captured on the screen, talking about their lanterns. Tim Minchin discusses how as humans the way we treat the land is not perfect, through to a rousing finale composed by Richard Walley and Iain Graindage with all 500 onstage performing. The animation is breathtaking, it walks you through that journey along with the music, intertwined."

Home is a ceremonial event and a narrative one at that. And while it's magnitude is such that it mightn't truly speak to you until you're watching it unfold before your eyes, Ansell has an encapsulation of the event which strikes at the very heart of it.

"Home, I think, is our place, our stories, our culture - a historic gathering of Western Australian artists for one night."                

Home features performances and contributions from John Butler Trio, Tim Minchin,  Shaun Tan, Pigram Brothers, The Drones,  The Panics, The Triffids, The Waifs, Josie Boyle, Grace Barbe, Ernie Dingo, Robert Drewe, Wayne Freer, Iain Grandage, Megan Lewis, Candice Lorrae, Kavisha Mazzella,  Della Rae Morrison, Lucky Oceans, Kim Scott, Swing It, Tara Tiba, Voyces, Vicky Ramakrishnan, Richard Walley,  Dave Warner, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Youth Orchestra, Gina Williams and Tim Winton. For more, head to perthfestival.com.au.

Originally published in X-Press Magazine