The Wonderwalls Festival returns to the Illawarra next month with two days of funk, soul and dance music.
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Organisers have announced the full lineup of events and artists for the family-friendly event which will see large-scale murals painted across Port Kembla from November 18 to 20.
This year's festival theme centers around growth, change and a "Future PK".
"We've been curating and producing this festival for 10 years now, and to us it's always been about growing, evolving and looking to the future," founder Simon Grant said.
"The future of our communities, the future of our spaces, and the future of the art...hosting the festival in Port Kembla, this year will really showcase the power that art has to re-shape a city's identity."
For a decade Wonderwalls has been a celebration of live street art with 110 local, national and international creatives grabbing paint tins and spray cans to transform dull, dingy city walls into masterpieces.
Twelve artists will take over 12 fresh walls this year, to add to the 75-or-so artworks that have been left as a lasting legacy along walkways, alleyways and underpasses of Wollongong and Port Kembla.
Artists include some of the country's most prolific and internationally renowned street artists as well as Wollongong and South Coast up-and-coming large-scale muralists, who will add to a street art trail of more than 75 artworks around the Illawarra.
THE ARTISTS
The 2022 Wonderwalls Festival lineup includes heavy-weight muralists like Lisa King.
King is renowned for her vibrant portraits, including a towering David Bowie mural in Adelaide that stands at a height of 11 meters.
King will create a bespoke mural at the south end of Wentworth Street over the duration of the festival, arriving in Wollongong from Melbourne on November 14th.
Also descending on Port Kembla are Australia's leading muralist duo, Scott Nagy & Krimsone.
Fresh from completing one of the South Coast's largest murals, "Dream Boat" in Nowra CBD, the duo will bring their surrealist landscapes and dynamic scenes to Court Lane.
Organisers are committed nurturing emerging talent and have this year included locals Laura Mason, Michael Ilieveski and Ocean Thomas with the string of established muralists.
The trio will take their respective spots across three sites, bringing their skills alongside some of the country's finest artists.
Rounding out the lineup is a combination of artistic styles and expressions, from Sydney-based Styna and Thomas Jackson; and Melbourne's Sahil Roy, Alex Sugar and the multi-talented, Aki Yaguchi.
Aki will perform double duties over the weekend, painting her signature characters on
Wentworth St as well as bringing her own brand of soul and R&B music alongside her four piece band at the "Smoke & Steel Block Party".
THE BLOCK PARTY
The "Smoke and Steel Block Party" will be an all ages celebration of music from funk, soul, hip-hop to dance which will be held in and around The Foundry Cafe and Good Drop Liquor store on Wentworth Street.
There will also be live art, a pop-up bar and food trucks, going late into both Friday and Saturday nights and will be headlined by 16-piece funk group, The Regime, as well as Australian dance royalty, Haiku Hands.
Limited tickets are available for this event through Moshtix.
Fri 18th
- THE REGIME // SETWUN & THE SOULSTRANAUTS
- MORNING MOOD // ANGELO THE POET
- BUSTY // THE REMEDY MAN
Sat 19th
- HAIKU HANDS // BOOMCHILD // LIYAH KNIGHT
- BREKKY BOY // BRIA // AKI YAGUCHI
- RED REVEL // BEDROOM BLUEPRINT
THE WORKSHOPS
If your kids are aged nine to 16 and love to dabble in art, this is for them!
The workshops will cover the basics of aerosol application, as well as screen printing and other mediums. Rather than sitting on the sidelines (but also for those who don't want to get splattered with colour) Virtual Reality painting will also feature at the artist hub, The Foundery, located on Wentworth Street.
The festival runs from the 18th to the 20th of November in various locations in and around the quaint and nostalgia-infused port town, Port Kembla, a suburb of the Greater City of Wollongong. For more information and links to tickets for the string of events visit www.verbsyndicate.com.
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