THE MOST HEARTY FARTY FEEDBACK FROM 2023
“Thank you so much for giving this festival to Burra.” “Fantastic! Such fun.” “I have been to many Shakespeare productions interstate & SA & this is the best one ever!” “Great initiative for our community. Something different to anything we have been to before.” “This was such an innovative festival…a constant delight, filled with fun. We were really glad we drove from Melbourne to attend.” “Better than a night at the Globe.” “Nice to have a mixture of performances and workshops.” “We also loved all the conversation and warmth with the Burra locals.”
Burra’s
FARTY BARD
FESTIVAL
returning ???
celebrate the sillier side of Shakespeare & friends
In South Australia’s beautiful heritage town Burra
Farty Bard Festival would like to acknowledge the Ngadjuri people on whose ancestral land we live and create and pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
BUMMER & CALL OUT.
18 November 2024
I didn’t get a grant I was going for, for the Autumn ‘25 Farty Bard Festival. This means at this stage, we’re on hold. Now, if this is disappointing news, and you were looking forward to it, feedback from the grant assessors included “Evidence of demand would have strengthened the application e.g. has there been a call for Shakespeare from the community?”
So if you are calling out for Shakespeare in our community, please please please send me a private message or an email and write this down. How much you enjoyed the festival, or how much you would enjoy the festival if we have it again and why. Then I can collate responses and do a new application with an overwhelming amount of EVIDENCE OF DEMAND!
In Shakespeare’s day, the theatre was basically Netflix, everyone went to see plays. So show’s had to be fun. There’s silliness about flatulent dogs, ‘fa-la-la’ refrains* and how drinking makes you wee. In music, this was a time before Spotify. Songs were written for everyone to sing about problems we all face - trying to find love or a good wine or being too old and flatulent to dance. That’s what Farty Bard is about - Shakespeare doesn’t have to be arty-farty to be farty.
BURRA
This festival is run by the Burra based Mid North Arts. We host it here partly because we live here, and partly because the heritage listed town of Burra is beautiful, has a fascinating history and is a great place a visit. About 2 hours north of Adelaide, Burra is such a nice place to visit, it won the 2024 Hello SA Tiny Tourism Town and the People’s Choice Award.
THEATRE - MUSIC - WORKSHOPS
The festival has a range of performing arts activities with theatre and music shows and workshops running through the weekend. The full program will be released early in 2025.
GET IN TOUCH
Please send an email if you’d like more info about Farty Bard Festival. The call for 2025 artists will be up soon.
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* according to the dictionary ‘fa-la-la’ refrains are meaningless syllables that turn up in songs of this time. But that’s not what I was told at University. Nudge nudge wink wink.
“CLOWN: Are these, I pray you, wind instruments?
MUSICIAN: Ay marry are they, sir.
CLOWN: O, thereby hangs a tail.
MUSICIAN: Whereby hangs a tail, sir?
CLOWN: Marry, sir, by many a wind instrument that I know.”
Othello, William Shakespeare