Melbourne Cultural Tour

Over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, a group of Pacific students and staff travelled to Melbourne to enjoy the Melbourne Arts Festival. This year’s itinerary included a wide variety of dance, theatre and music performances, which were interspersed with sightseeing some of Melbourne’s iconic locations. 

The highlights of the trip included ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Musical’, a dance piece called ‘Colossus’ performed by the Stephanie Lake Dance Company and the Terracotta Warrior and Cai Guo-Qiang Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Students also saw performances such as ‘What Girls Are Made Of’ in the Spiegeltent and ‘Roots’, which was a comedic combination of early cinema aesthetics, handcrafted animation and innovative live music. Additionally, Pacific students had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the Haroon Mirza Contemporary Art Exhibition, which encompassed sculptural assemblage and live performance to manipulate the acoustic and aesthetic properties of art. Other sites visited were the Old Melbourne Gaol, the Queen Victoria Markets, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Eureka Skydeck.

Over the four days, students enjoyed many walking tours around the Melbourne laneways to see the street art and picturesque food and shopping areas. Students even took the time to indulge in a picnic lunch in the park to soak up the culturally rich atmosphere. Overall, students and staff alike had a fantastic time experiencing everything Melbourne had to offer.

Mrs Helen Williams, Mrs Ceilidh King and Mr Steven Lake, Melbourne Cultural Tour Coordinators