Courthouse Conversations come to CresFest

THE Creswick Courthouse will be in session during CresFest 2023, hosting incredible musicians, activists, writers, and performers in conversation with equally remarkable presenters.

Courthouse Conversations is a new initiative for CresFest 2023 broadening the discussion between artists and musicians who are performing at the festival.

The historic courthouse is noteworthy in its own right, its walls imbued with judgements and conversations going back to when it was built in 1859.

Courthouse Conversations are sure to inspire and entertain, exploring beyond the written and sung word leaving the audience in a meditative frame of mind.

In conversation the artists and hosts will contemplate the joys of music, the power of lyrics and the written word and the connection that brings the world together.

Aria award winner song writer, storyteller and social justice activist Kavisha Mazzella joins with Arnold Zable novelist, storyteller and human rights advocate to begin the Courthouse Conversations on artists and refugees.

Mazzella and Zable have been long time collaborators, drawn together by universal concerns of culture, community and social justice.

Musician and storyteller Lucy Wise will be in conversation with cellist, vocalist, and writer Monique Clare who’ll be openly reflecting on experiences that matter to all of us, from mental illness and recovery, growing up and body image.

Award winning author Cate Kennedy will talk about and read from Return: Nature is regenerating – can humans do that too?

This is prose and poetry that she wrote in collaboration with photographer Helga Salwe, whose exhibition will be showing at the nearby RACV Goldfields Art House.

Having written and composed Keating the musical, and appearing regularly on Spicks and Specks, Casey Bennetto’s topic for discussion We happy Fools: are songs the antidote to our modern ills? is very appropriate.

Bowerbirds in the archives brings together folk singers and instrumentalists Chloe & Jason Roweth together with local musicians Neil Adam and Archer as they discuss collecting music and stories diving into the deep treasure trove that is the National Library of Australia’s oral history collection.

Growing up in a tin shed with a veggie garden, a composting toilet and one solar panel shaped Charlie Mgee’s life from a very young age.

He formed his band Formidable Vegetable in the hope of inspiring people to live a better, simpler life and will talk on music as activism.

The final session, titled Can you really have it all?, is about mothers in the music industry.

These young women will discuss the challenges of making your way in the business and keeping your skills up when you are looking after small children.

Hosting the sessions are Cate Kennedy, James Fremantle, and Ruth Hazleton

Session of Courthouse Conversations are available on the CresFest 2023 website.

Access for each session is through the weekend ticket, which gets ticket holders entry into every performance throughout the festival.

Seating at the Courthouse, as in all venues, is not reserved. Tickets and further information on CresFest.com.au.

CresFest 2023 runs from Friday 31 March to Sunday, 2 April.

– BY FIONA WATSON