Adelaide Guitar Festival supports local musicians with online video series

Adelaide Guitar Festival is supporting local musicians with an online video series, The Backstage Sessions, giving audiences a backstage pass to South Australia’s vibrant live music scene while showcasing some of the state’s most talented guitarists.

Professionally filmed in the wings of Adelaide Festival Centre’s Festival Theatre, The Backstage Sessions will feature 15-minute sets from Adelaide Guitar Festival favourites along with accomplished emerging artists. 

Audiences will be treated to candid performances set against the unique backdrop of memorabilia collected from previous Adelaide Festival Centre productions.

Spanning rock, jazz, blues, classical and experimental, new videos will appear weekly on Adelaide Guitar Festival’s Facebook page from Friday, 17th July, until the virtual event concludes on Sunday, 9th August.

Adelaide Guitar Festival Artistic Director, Slava Grigoryan notes “after the loss of this year’s festival, we’ve looked for alternative possibilities for engaging some of our incredible local artists in a series of mini-concerts which capture the intimacy and joy of these rare collaborations. This is an initiative which we hope to continue long after social-distancing restrictions are lifted, and we’re seeing our audiences again ‘in the flesh’. We hope you enjoy watching these as much as we enjoyed making them!”

Adelaide Festival Centre Artistic Director & Chief Executive Douglas Gautier adds “this month was set to see the biggest Adelaide Guitar Festival yet, with performances scheduled to take place across the state from 1st July to 9th August. So to revel in the spirit of the festival that would have been, we’ve created something very special for guitar enthusiasts.

“This is an important opportunity to support South Australian musicians at a time when they have faced significant challenges in making a living out of what they do best. We hope The Backstage Sessions encourages more initiatives to help the local music industry recover from what has been a very difficult year so far.”

The line-up for The Backstage Sessions includes Chris Finnen, Cal Williams Jr & Kory Horwood; Kelly Menhennett & Band; The Tom Kneebone Trio; Mike Bevan & Alain Valodze; The Django Rowe Quintet and The Yearlings featuring Slava Grigoryan. 

Videos can be viewed at facebook.com/adelaideguitarfestival and on the Adelaide Guitar Festival website.

Audiences are invited to like and follow Adelaide Guitar Festival on Facebook to receive notification of the latest posts.