Australia's largest cultural program ever staged in South America, Australia now, ended on a high note reaching over 70,000 people in the last week with large-scale, outdoor performances at the Virada Cultural festival in São Paulo. Throughout April and May Australia now delivered over 100 events across 10 major cities in Brazil, introducing more than 100,000 Brazilians to contemporary Australian culture through a diverse and exciting program and reaching over two million people through radio, TV and online coverage.
The program featured Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music, dance and ceremony and highlighted Australian innovation and excellence in music, dance, theatre, circus arts, photography, gastronomy, cinema, visual arts and sport. Australian artists worked with disadvantaged communities and many began cross-cultural collaborations with Brazilian artists. After performing in Brazil, a number of artists also engaged in follow-up tours to other Latin American countries.
Each year the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade delivers a cultural festival in a country of strategic significance. After Brazil, the focus will shift to Germany in 2017, and in 2018 it will be the turn of Japan.
- YouTube: Australia now
- Twitter: @Australianow
- australianow2016.com
