DRIFT Arts Festival

Immerse yourself in an ocean of art, music and celebration

Drift is a new annual festival of art, music and celebration on the Mornington Peninsula. For 11 days, Drift will bring the Peninsula’s venues, places and spaces to life with art of all disciplines, including performance, music, visual arts, film, public art installations, multimedia and projections, writing and literature, and food and wine.

Drift is the optimal backdrop to explore our incredible region, and a timely call to action for participation and connectedness.

It will feature the debut of O_C_E_A_N, a multidisciplinary arts project encompassing contemporary art, story and spiritual practice at locations around the Peninsula. Developed by Shoreham-based artist and curator Janenne Willis, O_C_E_A_N explores and pays homage to the transformative nature of our water environments. Explore a floating gallery offshore at Flinders; soak in a host of projection and video works such as Patricia Piccinini’s Swell at the Dromana Drive-In; trek across wetlands and clifftops in search of sculptural installations; even learn to paint while surfing.

O_C_E_A_N features works from Patricia Piccinini, Abdul Abdullah, Brett Whiteley, Rebecca Jensen, Yandell Walton, Matthias Schack-Arnott, Sean Gladwell, Todd McMillan, Henry Jock Walker, Amaara Maheem, Shanai Kellet, Leyla Bulmer, Hayden O’Neil and more.

Drift also presents Into the Wilderness, a family-friendly day of live music, performance, participatory workshops and activities at Balnarring’s Emu Plains Reserve. Fun, free and immersive, this event will feature music from Pierce Brothers, The Grogans, Hayley Mary, Andy Golledge, Bumpy, Nicky Bomba, Stiff Richards, Hayden Calnin, NinchFest DJs and more across two music stages. It also features the Little Palais Circus tent, and a makers’ market lovingly curated by Emu Plains Market/Untold Events Co. As dusk falls, Emu Plains will light up with colourful light installations from Playable Streets and Lantasia Lights, blending traditional lantern design, sculpture and illustration to create luminous pieces of art, courtesy of The Lanternist.

The program also features Falling Into Place, a creative reflection on Hastings and Western Port, known to Traditional Owners as Warn Marrung or Murambik. Falling Into Place features workshops led by First Nations groups designed to bring understanding, acceptance, connection to self, Indigenous culture, Country and each other, as well as site-specific performances around the jetty and foreshore sites, and discussions and walks led by environmental experts.

Mornington Peninsula Shire’s famed Police Point Artist in Residence program is also subject to a significant retrospective exhibition, featuring many of the 90-plus participating artists from its six-year history. Artists will also be running a host of participatory workshops across the duration of the festival.

The Police Point Shire Park will also play host to 262 – Our Stories So Far, the participatory arts project that has collected our stories from 262 days in lockdown and transformed them into a documentary, live music and projection event.

The festival program also features incredible works from famed locals including Dreamhouse Theatre Company, Living Culture, MP Music Network, Peninsula Studio Trail, Peninsula Writers Club, Spark Productions, the Pig & Whistle Tavern, Mt Eliza Chamber of Commerce, Manyung Gallery, and heaps more.

Come and immerse yourself in this continuity of history. Come and drift with us. Drift is brought to you by Mornington Peninsula Shire from Thursday, April 21-Sunday, May 1.

MORNINGTON PENINSULA SHIRE A: 2 Queen St, Mornington A: 90 Besgrove St, Rosebud A: 21 Marine Pde, Hastings A: 1085 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Somerville T: 5950 1000 W: www.mornpen.vic.gov.au/Home