Sydney Children's Festival - Tory Loudon interview

Tory, the festival has grown a lot since last year in terms of the number of events, but also the geographical reach.
Yes. People were quite happy to travel in past years [when the festival was solely based at CarriageWorks], but we thought it would be nice to take it a bit closer to people and showcase some local artists in hubs like Parramatta and Newcastle.

In terms of the theatre programme, what were you looking for when you were deciding what performances to put in the mix?
One of the things that we always look for is work that is interactive, because an underlying ethos of the festival is participation. That’s about actually encouraging children to think of themselves like they are artists in their own right and to give them that confidence to explore and to discover. It’s also about encouraging parents and children to have shared experiences.

Polyglot’s show City of Riddles absolutely fits the bill because it’s a large scale, interactive, immersive experience. It’s an experience where you go in and you’re put into teams and you have to create your city, you can’t be passive, and then at the end of the show, it turns into more of a performance.

Shows like I, Bunyip aren’t so heavily focused on audience participation, even though they will have an element of engaging with people, they're more about imagination. Everyone knows fairytales and various stories from mythology, but people don’t know that much about the indigenous tales and what a strong role they play. The show is about putting indigenous issues into a more contemporary context. It's about asking 'what is real?' and 'what is imagined?'

Tell us a little about the workshop programme.  
People are a lot more aware about introducing new media technology into their kids programming. We try not to do too much of it, to tell the truth, it’s not really a core. The storytelling and imagination and creativity are all the things that we see as being the underlying principles. It’s about how you can use those technologies to achieve those purposes. We want to encourage kids to not just think about the skill level involved, but how to apply it. It’s very much about getting to create something of your own that you get to take away. 

The workshop programme is about instilling in them the confidence and the skills that’ll continue at home, whereas performances are much about more about being inspired. I went to lots of shows as a child, and I’ve got some really vivid memories that have lingered with me for so long. If you can show them something completely different and just inspire that little spark – that’s what those performances are there for.

What free activities are on offer?
There’s a huge visual arts programme, which is all free. There’s a big area where kids can try out paints. There’s also a beautiful room called Ms Kandinsky's Art House and a character who is designed to introduce children to modern art and quite abstract concepts in art and textiles. We've also got free circus and film programmes and the Literature Festival on Saturday 1 October is completely free too. Authors and illustrators like Emma Magenta will give talks and lead writing, story-building and illustration workshops to inspire kids.

We noticed that you've also got an event just for adults this year. 
Yes, it is a first for us. Maggie Hamilton, who wrote What’s Happening to Our Boys and What’s Happening to Our Girls, will lead an hour-long discussion with parents about some of the radical changes that are happening to kids and teenagers - the ways that they are growing up fast, and what that means. It will be really interesting.

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