Melbourne
Festival Lounge
Toumani Diabaté
(Mali)
The place to soak up the backstage
atmosphere, indulge and celebrate!
the Arts Centre, Café Vic
Thu 6 – Sat 22 Oct
Tue – Sun 10.30am – late
Closed Mon
FREE
This year the Arts Centre’s Café Vic is
transformed into an oasis of festivity,
friends, performance and indulgence.
The Lounge is the beating heart of
Melbourne Festival and a peek into
the backstage, set in an ethereal and
otherworldly landscape.
With a custom menu filled with Victoria’s
finest food and wine, there is no better place
to enjoy everything this Festival has to offer.
The Lounge will be a home away from home
for artists, patrons and friends to meet day
or night for a pre-show meal, a post-show
discussion or to continue the party well
into the night.
Presented by Arts Projects Australia in
association with Melbourne Festival
One of the world’s great
virtuosos and a two-time
Grammy Award winner,
Toumani Diabaté presents an
evening of sublime music.
During the evenings this pop-up
performance lounge will feature everything
from low-key solo musicians to high camp
cabaret, dance and cinematic installations
with an eclectic soundtrack provided by
some of our favourite PBS DJs.
Standing tall at the crossroads of African
music, Toumani Diabaté is the world’s
pre-eminent exponent of the kora, a
21-string Malian harp. Together with his
band he conjures joyous cross-cultural
collaborations, embracing everything
from flamenco, blues, jazz and pop to the
irrepressible pulse of West Africa.
By day, the Lounge plays host to the
renowned Artists in Conversation series,
giving you the opportunity to hear some of
the most esteemed artists appearing at this
year’s Festival talk about their work.
(See page 38 for full listings.)
The quality of such a rich sound stems from
Diabaté’s formidable musical history: his
family’s oral tradition tells of 71 generations
of musicians preceding him – though none
have pushed the bounds as far as Diabaté.
His sound is the exciting juncture of new
and traditional inspiration, where the
traditions of Mali combine with the spirit of
Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix.
Be part of the offstage story at the
Melbourne Festival Lounge – a place where
anything could happen.
Check melbournefestival.com.au
for Festival Lounge events
Supported by
50
Diabaté will begin this extraordinary
concert with an exquisite solo rendition of
his Mandé Variations, before celebrating the
power and rhythms of Africa with his fellow
musicians, a handpicked band of fellow
griots,