Beechworth
Weekend August 1st, 2nd, 3rd August 2008
For all enquiries and
bookings contact Beechworth Visitor Centre on 1300
366 321
Email: visit_beechworth@indigoshire.vic.gov.au
Web: beechworthonline.com.au
Brochure: 2008 Ned Kelly Weekend
Beechworth’s
famous Ned Kelly Weekend returns from the 1st to the
3rd of August with a lively program of re-enactments,
theatre, art, music, displays, market stalls, competitions
and talks by leading authorities on the subject of
the life and times of Australia’s
most notorious bushranger.
Now in its fifth year and
widely regarded as this country’s most important annual celebration of
the Kelly legend, the weekend event commemorates the
anniversary of the outlaw’s committal hearing
held in the historic Beechworth Courthouse from 6 to
11 August 1880.
This years Ned Kelly Weekend has the added
significance of the 150th anniversary of the Beechworth
Historic & Cultural Precinct, being commemorated
throughout 2008. This year for the first time, tours
of the Courthouse will be available across the weekend
in recognition of the sesquicentenary. Among the many
highlights of the 2008 program are:
• Introduced by Australia’s foremost
Kelly biographer, Ian
Jones, a critically acclaimed
theatrical staging of The
Jerilderie Letter in the
historic Courthouse. Devised and performed by Peter
Finlay and with music and vocals by Malcolm Hill,
this fine production has received rave reviews since
its debut performance at the 2007 Melbourne Fringe
Festival.
• From Sidney Nolan to Norman Lindsay, Ned
Kelly has long provided inspiration for artists.
One of the most popular events of the 2007 Ned Kelly
Weekend,
Framed, returns
to Beechworth’s Historic Precinct
in 2008. This sensational art exhibition is again
expected to attract entries from regional, metropolitan
and interstate artists. This year the general public
will have the chance to vote for their favourite
work with the new Framed People’s Choice Award.
• Talks by experts in the Courthouse, including
Brad
Webb, whose authoritative www.ironoutlaw.com is
Australia’s most respected Kelly internet resource
and one of the world’s most visited history-related
internet sites. His talk will encompass Ned
Kelly and the emergence of technology.
• Ashley Davies’ production of Ned
Kelly is a raw, stripped back telling of a story that many
Australians think they know. This acclaimed live
show incorporates a six piece band and visual display
including photos, historical documents, footage of
Kelly country, and text narrated by Ian Jones, Australia’s
foremost Kelly historian. The performance transports
the audience to key moments in the life of Ned Kelly
including his teenage years, his mother’s incarceration,
the Gang’s bank robberies, the last stand at
Glenrowan and the court proceedings. It all makes
for a moving, powerful and true account of the Kelly
story.
• The Ned Kelly Weekend Heritage Market in
Ford Street, outside the Historic Precinct, featuring
a host of good old-fashioned food stalls, buskers,
games for children and demonstrations of traditional
crafts such as shingle and whip making, wood working,
blacksmithing, spinning, coopering, quilting and
weaving.
• The Ned
Kelly Trial Re-enactment, including
Ned’s arrival at the Beechworth Historic Courthouse
and his subsequent committal hearing based on actual
court transcripts.
• A crowd favourite in 2006, The
Great Fight returns in 2008, commemorating Ned Kelly’s
marathon bare-knuckled 20-Round stoush with Wild
Wright. The warm-up bout for this rollicking event
will see the Judging of the Great Ned Kelly Weekend
Beard Competition which will see a gathering of the
finest beards in the north east vying for the inaugural
Best Beard Trophy.
Further Information:
Beechworth 2008 event brochure
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