Australia's National Local Government Newspaper Online

Sunset concerts unite community

Adesire to provide cultural activity for its community and to raise the profile of an underutilised community resource prompted the City of Cockburn in Western Australia to stage a series of evening concerts. Featuring local and other performers, the concerts proved popular across all age groups.

"We are a big community but tend to lack a central focus," said Susan Clarke, Community Development and Arts Officer. "Many local people use Fremantle as their base. We wanted to provide a cultural focus here for the people of Cockburn."

She added that the Manning Park Music Shell provides Cockburn with great acoustics in a beautiful wilderness setting.

However, this facility is not widely known about in the community and tends to be underused, so here was a chance to achieve two objectives together.

Running three concerts in a trial program gave Council the opportunity to raise the profile of the Shell, provide family oriented entertainment for the community and give local artists an opportunity to perform on a public stage.

The culturally diverse City, which includes large numbers of Aboriginal, South American, Timorese, Italian and Croatian people, provided a wealth of talent for the concerts.

Performers included Aboriginal, Maori and Samoan dancers, an Italian women's choir, and Kerry Anne Cox winner, in 1996, of the statewide, 'Next Big Thing' contest which aims to promote new music and performers.

For further information contact Susan Clarke, telephone (08) 9411 3433.

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