Mountain to Mouth brings songs and stars to Geelong After Dark

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Three unsigned artists teamed up with three experienced music industry mentors to write a song about a place in the Geelong region: that’s the premise of Connecting Song, a City of Greater Geelong initiative to support up and coming songwriters.

Jeff Harwood, Tex Miller and Shaun Fogarty were selected from a pool of Geelong’s hottest new talent to work with music industry heroes Adalita (of Magic Dirt fame), blues and roots musician Tim Neal and hip hop artist Trem One.

After months of solid songwriting, recording, mixing and creating videos, their work will debut in the secret garden next to Beav’s Bar at Geelong After Dark on Friday 5 May.

Connecting Song is one of two festival contributions from the City’s Mountain to Mouth (M~M) project, aimed at building on the concept of a contemporary song line.

Another highlight will be M~M’s Constellation - River of Words, a stunning installation at City Hall by Matt Bonner and Esther Oakes. Constellation will transform City Hall into an enchanting riverscape of possibility.  Viewers will enter through a pathway of illuminated books to find a flowing river of words, bringing the City’s Our Future – 30 Year Vision to life.

Geelong After Dark will illuminate central Geelong from 6-10pm with edgy art, interactive performances, spoken word, projections, illuminations, live music, soundscapes and exhibitions.

Up to 20,000 residents and visitors are expected to discover (or re-discover) the city in a whole new light, with 370 artists participating and more than 80 short, sharp, edgy art activities to experience.

Geelong After Dark is a free, family-friendly event, with children encouraged to join in The Amazing Arts Adventure, an interactive journey of discovery through central Geelong. 

This multi-award winning annual festival is organised by the City of Greater Geelong with creative production by Diversitat.

For program updates visit geelongafterdark.com.au

...Projections!

Projections are back this time around at Geelong After Dark with amazing pieces to be lighting up the City's most loved buildings and spaces.  Led by the enigmatic Matt Bonner (creatively known as Amoebart), the front of City Hall will be wondrously transformed for the night - all with the amazing power of projection lighting.

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Sneak peak from Matt Boner's Geelong After Dark - Breathe

Matt has been creating Projection Art for the past 16 years with large scale building projection his main focus since 2011. 

“Everywhere I go I find myself looking at buildings and wondering what it would be like to project on them”.

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Sneak peak of Matt's second show -  Float  

Matt has two cool shows to exhibit on the night. The first show Breathe to kick it all off has the "columns expanding with each breath and the façade opening to reveal the heart of the building pumping to a rhythmic beat". (Matt says that this piece has been exceptionally challenging as he has had to reconstruct the building using visual effect software) 

While Float which will conclude the night, "stems from Matt's interest in surrealism and experimental art and music" and focuses on constructing an entrancing dream-scape environment. 

And this time along with fellow artist David Fromholtz, Matt will also be constructing a fully interactive projection light playground down on Customs Lawn. We know this is meant to be for the kids but we also know how tempting it can be to join in - promise we wont judge!

We can't wait for Matt to have everyone's eyes glued to City Hall so make sure you follow Amoebart on Facebook for exciting updates! 

Images taken from a virtual trial run ahead of Geelong After Dark 2016 (composition and colours may change)