After five years in the chair (one more than originally envisaged, thanks to COVID), Iain Grandage delivers his final Perth Festival as Artistic Director, one set to warm hearts and minds.

Its iconic image this year? The Sun.

“Ngaangk in Noongar language is a term for the Sun and for ‘mother’,” explains Grandage. “That mother sun informs our terrestrial lives, our shared humanity. It’s the female energy that feeds the earth on which we stand – Noongar Boodjar.”

Speaking to Limelight, Grandage describes his farewell festival as one “filled with warmth, hope, lightness and brightness, with ecological themes at is heart and a sense of shared humanity as we face difficult times.”

Commencing 9 February (to 3 March), the Festival program will feature artists including African superstar Angélique Kidjo, UK contemporary dance legend Akram Khan, New York City’s Brooklyn Rider, Italy’s inimitable Ludovico Einaudi and a provocative work from the Belgian theatre adventurers Ontroerend Goed.

Ontroerend Goed’s Are we not drawn onward to new erA. Photo © Mirjam Devriendt

The Festival opens...