These October school holidays, Wollongong will come alive with the South Coast Children’s Festival 2011! This interactive festival will be three jam-packed days of amazing theatre, awesome workshops, colourful roving performers and more at Illawarra Performing Arts Centre and Civic Plaza, Wollongong.

The Festival was held for the first time in 2010 and was a resounding success. Merrigong Theatre Co’s Artistic Director/CEO Simon Hinton said

"It was really exciting to be able to establish the Festival with Illawarra Children’s Services last year. We were thrilled with the response from local families, with more than three thousand people turning up over the three days. This year’s Festival is even bigger and better than last year’s and we’ve got some real surprises in store for everybody. There’ll be great new performances from some of Australia’s best, plus some performances that are being created especially for the Festival. Last year almost all of the workshops booked out, so we’re encouraging people to book as early as possible to avoid disappointment."

Jennine Primmer, Illawarra Children’s Services General Manager, Communications said

"We’re excited to partner with Merrigong Theatre Company again this year to present an even bigger and better interactive experience for families in the Illawarra and beyond. Last year, when we conceived the idea for the South Coast Children’s Festival, we had a feeling it would be something special but we were blown away by the positive reactions, the joy of new discoveries and the smiles.
This year’s creative program is shaping up to be something truly unique. Cutting edge, contemporary and truly inspiring. I love the idea of parents and children joining together to have fun; to look, learn, listen, laugh and create!"

This year’s Festival is filled with fun, creative activities for children and families. Here’s just a few of the highlights:

• Pirates!
  A swashbuckling theatrical adventure from the world-renowned Flying Fruit Fly Circus.
  This group of amazing teenage acrobats from Albury Wodonga comes to the Festival aboard a 13-metre trailer converted into a pirate ship. Skills displayed will include juggling, sword fighting, table sliding, teeterboard, trampolining, aerial skills and heaps of acrobatics. Some of the cast have been members of the Circus for a decade. They’ve been practising 5 - 7 days a week for 2½ hours each day to perform the 50-minute show.
   
• Patch Theatre Company’s The Happiest Show on Earth, foot-stomping music and dazzling vaudevillian theatrics in. In this engaging comedy for the whole family, Doctor Smith shares the secrets of his little blue bottle of magic, whilst entertaining us with the amazing acts of circus, music and illusion, including the Fabulous Flea Circus and a Lighter-than-Air Levitation Act that goes embarrassingly wrong.
   
• I Wanna Be - a zany, fast moving mix of contemporary circus and dance from Fling Physical Theatre and Wollongong’s own Half High Circus.

• Public Mischief’s interactive, sailor-rescuing workshop Ghostship.

• And bring your Grandma or Grandpa along to Monkey Baa’s storytelling workshop When I Was 5. This new workshop will involve grandparents and their grandchildren sharing stories of their childhood.

There’ll be loads more performances and workshops, plus a wide range of free activities throughout the duration of the Festival, so add the dates to your calendar now!

Fantastic festival packages and single tickets go on sale on Thursday 1 September. Sign up to receive the newsletter and to stay updated on the full schedule of events by visiting the website or ‘like’ the South Coast Children’s Festival on Facebook!

Illawarra Children’s Services’ Creativity Conference is also happening again at IPAC on Thursday 29 September, as part of this year’s Festival. Jennine Primmer said the Conference is about big ideas:

“Our presenters will be looking at creativity in a broad sense – arts, science, environments, thinking, communicating, play. There will be an eclectic mix of performance, inspiring speakers and visual exploration. It is a unique theme and the focus on what creativity means in children’s education and life is something that anyone working with kids can relate to.”

The conference is for teachers, parents, family day carers, early childhood professionals, artists, therapists, recreational and cultural programmers - anyone working with kids. For more information or to register, visit the website or call (02) 4283 9947.

The South Coast Children’s Festival 2011.
October long weekend, 30 September – 2 October

Creativity Conference: Thursday 29 September
Illawarra Performing Arts Centre and Civic Plaza 32 Burelli St, Wollongong NSW 2500
Tickets: Festival packages and single tickets on sale Thursday 1 September.