AUSTIN: Beginning tonight and running through April 26, Fusebox Festival, an annual colloquy of cutting-edge performance, will host a virtual edition of its 2020 festival. The event is completely free to attend and will feature over 50 projects, including performances, workshops, artist studio visits, cooking classes, talks, dance parties, children’s activities, installations, and other events featuring more than 60 artists from around the world.
“We see this as a glorious experiment of what it means to gather together, and celebrate adventurous art, online,” said Fusebox founder and artistic director Ron Berry in a statement. The annual festival, now in its 16th year, typically brings in artists from around the world each April to perform in 20 venues around the Austin area. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, the festival has been reimagined in the virtual realm to bring together a global audience.
The festival kicks off tonight, April 24, at 7 p.m. Eastern with a virtual welcome from the Fusebox Festival team and a celebratory singalong with Toronto musical duo Choir! Choir! Choir!, known for their community-building, drop-in singing events.
As the festival continues through the weekend, other highlights include works from Tina Satter of Half Straddle (New York City), Dickie Beau (London), Gesel Mason Dance Projects (Austin), kt shorb + Katherine Wilkinson (Austin/New York City), Justin Shoulder (Australia), Eisa Jocson (the Philippines), Rianto (Indonesia), the Illustrious Blacks (New York City), Erica Nix (Austin), jumatatu m. poe (Philadelphia), Ingri Fiksdal (Oslo, Norway), and Christeene (Lake Charles, La.). The festival will also host projects from Australia and the Asia Pacific Region curated by Jeff Khan, artistic director and CEO of Performance Space-Sydney.
The full schedule of events is available online along with an artist book companion (for purchase) featuring writing from Eileen Myles, Binghao Wong, and Jasmine E. Johnson, among others. Those interested in attending the virtual festival should tune into Fusebox Festival’s YouTube and Facebook pages.
