Exclusive: David Bridie & George Telek to headline Walking With Spirits 2017

Image: George Telek (via QAGOMA)

The Northern Territory’s unique, Indigenous culture-focused festival Walking With Spirits will return to Beswick Falls in July, headlined by George Telek and David Bridie.

The festival took a break from the Falls to be held in the Beswick community last year, as local elders said the land needed to rest, but will be back at the stunning natural site for 2017. 

Telek, Papua New Guinea’s most famous singer-songwriter and an ARIA winner, has collaborated with Bridie (of My Friend The Chocolate Cake and Not Drowning, Waving) for years. Walking With Spirits 2017 will culminate in a performance of songs from their most recent project: a Bit Na Ta (The Source Of The Sea), the soundtrack to the QAGOMA art installation of the same name, rich with the complementary textures of Telek’s storytelling and Bridie’s washes of sound and field recordings.

The a Bit na Ta ensemble are also supporting Midnight Oil for their Queensland shows later this year.

Filling out the rest of the lineup are Benny Walker, whose soul-blues songwriting and brooding good looks are set to make him a star; Rrawun Maymuru, the velvet-voiced East Journey frontman (and grandson of Yothu Yindi founder Mandawuy Yunupingu) whose collab with Nick Wales for the Sydney Dance Company earned rave reviews this month; and Fijian dance and song collective Rako Pasefika.

You can stream music from the festival’s artists in the mini-mixtape below, made especially for TMN.

Walking With Spirits tickets go on sale tomorrow from shakespeareaustralia.com. One-night tickets include the main performance and camping, while two-night tickets includes the opening ceremony, camping and a workshop of choice at Beswick’s Ghunmarn Community Centre on the Friday night.