Captivating festivalgoers under 12 years of age, KidZone’s 2024 line-up of engaging and hands-on activities promises a delightful blend of storytelling, music, dance and educational adventures – including an extensive First Nations cultural program, silent disco walking tours, puppet-making, and life-size elephant puppets that will roam the park in the daily Celebration Parade.
WOMADelaide’s 2024 First Nations Weaving program takes place across three days and will inspire little creators as they learn about traditional weaving techniques and local culture from different language groups, including Ngarrindjeri artists Belinda and Marika Wilson, and the Ku Arts team, where children can make a wearable adornment made from recycled plastics and found natural materials.
They can get ‘hands-on’ with talented Iwiri Arts weavers who will demonstrate and teach how to make a natural woven Tjanpi animal, and in Lakun Mara workshops with Sonya Rankine, her daughter Soraya Rankine and artist Carron Daveson, they can share the Thukeri Dreaming story, followed by a workshop to make a small Thukeri (bony bream fish) with ‘ghost net’ marine debris.
A delightful new collaboration between one of the world’s leading puppet companies, Handspring – best known for their giant creations War Horse and Little Amal – and Adelaide’s Slingsby Theatre Company is the joyous Celebration Parade. Each day, a family of life-sized elephants venture out from their home in KidZone to explore and interact with audiences in magical moments of discovery.
Children can also experience Pacific culture and beats with traditional dancing, weaving, and coconut husking demonstrations alongside shared songs, stories and activities with the Pacific Islands Council of SA.
Children and adults can don headphones and move to the groove of Guru Dudu’s Silent Disco Walking Tours, moving to their own beat as they dance around Botanic Park. KidZone will be home to the Leafy Sea Dragon – a five metre long and three metre wide woven installation and collaboration with the Art Gallery of SA’s Tarnanthi Festival 2023.
Created by Arts Ceduna artists and supported by Ku Arts using marine debris collected from its natural habitat of the far west coastlines of the Eyre Peninsula, the leafy sea dragon is an important emblem for many communities and can be found under the Yankalilla jetties amongst a blooming underwater world of sharks, stingrays, seagrass and more.
There is also the opportunity for children to take part in the Uncle Stevie’s Kaurna Classroom educational sessions. Honouring the legacy of Adelaide’s most celebrated Kaurna educator, the late Stevie Gadlabarti Goldsmith, Uncle Stevie’s Classroom provides a unique space for children to delve into the rich realms of Kaurna culture and language.
Over the four-day festival, other activities include the Art Gallery of SA Paper Garden, sharing the artistry of making paper everlasting-flowers as their paper garden installation grows over the weekend; Evelyn Roth’s Nylon Zoo returns with a wondrous inflatable bilby, echidna and giant tortoise, storytelling and theatrical dress-ups; the Adelaide City Library’s Book Nook features a huge number of books to explore as well as activities; and Nature Play SA will stir children’s curiosity and respect for SA’s endangered fauna species, offering puppet-making workshops for children to join the daily Celebration Parade.
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