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Welcome to the ZEST FESTIVAL Kalbarri

In 2012 the Kalbarri Development Association created with the Shire of Northampton, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence, Centre for the History of Emotions, 1100-1800 (CHE), the Western Australian Museum and the community a new and dynamic Festival in response to the 300-year anniversary of the Zuytdorp shipwreck.

In a wild place on the Western Australian Coast we are creating a Festival that brings community together to share their history but also to explore their emotional heritage and who they are.
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Chamber of Rhetoric    |     Zest Festival 2012

ZEST FESTIVAL is a five year event that will be the cultural pulse that will take Kalbarri and nearby communities up to the 400th anniversary of the landing by Dirk Hartog in 2016.

ZEST FESTIVAL is inspired by this significant collision between two worlds and has ignited a new interpretation of history, including exploring our cultural connections to other countries, in particular those cultures touched by the Dutch East India Company: the Netherlands, South Africa, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, China and Japan.

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Kalbarri Murchison River

Through ancient crafts of storytelling, the trade and taste of spices, exploring our cultural connections and the way we experience life today, ZEST will open our eyes to the future through a unique historical lens.  Weaving its way through these experiences will be the power of human emotion.

The Zest Festival: 2012 to 2016

Each year the Zest Festival will focus on a place, a country, countries or region, that was connected to the VOC.

  • 2013: The Cape, South Africa: a critical place to rest, re-stock and re-populate your vessel. Who would have hopped on the Zuytdorp and placed their fate at the cliffs of Western Australia? Let the music and dance of South Africa get you moving and open your heart to be moved by stories of the Cape.
  • 2014: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India: Compare textiles, dance, philosophy and religions of the regions as they responded to Dutch commerce. Spark thoughts about the values of local versus global and retaining cultural integrity and identity.
  • 2015: China and Japan. Mysterious and alluring, be intoxicated by new things: tea, silk, porcelain, ceremonies and access to new ways of thinking. This year will focus on the human desire for new and beautiful things but also the sharing of science, knowledge and innovations between countries. Here we will explore the role of fashion, the art of Origami, and the skill of flower arranging and the crafting of fine objects. We will commission designers and artists to make fashion, pottery, paperwork and flower arrangements inspired by the Orient and our current relationship with China and Japan.
  • 2016: Eendracht: Explorers, discoveries and shipwrecks. Eendracht means harmony. Our last festival will bring all the cultures together and celebrate the youthful energy of young sailors, explorers and women of the era who waited for their loved ones, received the attention of sailors or stepped onto a boat and had the spirit to travel to foreign lands. This is where we add beer into our spice fare and raise a glass to all those who’ve preceded us, recognising their contributions to our Australian society today and the human qualities which opened up new possibilities and connections to the world.