Sharon Howard and Barbara Lepani of the Greater Blue Mountains Creative Arts Network (GBMCAN) are working with Seven Valleys Tourism (Lithgow LGA) to develop a signature annual Seven Valleys Arts and Culture Festival that will tell its new story as it transitions from its past as a centre of coal mining and coal-fired electricity generation. Lithgow is one of the seven valleys that make up the LGA. The others are: Megalong, Kanimbla, Hartley, Tarana, Capertee and Wolgan valleys. It also includes the new arts precinct at Portland. We are hoping for a soft launch 6 – 13 May 2023.
The Seven Valleys’s new story is to become a centre of eco-cultural tourism, renewable energy storage and distribution and associated innovative industries. An area of great natural beauty and gateway to the Central West, it stretches from the soaring escarpments of the Blue Mountains, across rolling hills and valleys, leading to rapidly growing lifestyle towns such as Mudgee and Orange.
A highlight of plans for the festival is the development of a new performing arts work: Garden of Stones—Voices of the Earth in 5 acts: Ancient Times; Wiradjuri Custodians, Digging for Black Gold (coal); Environmental Protection; and finally Regenesis as all protagonists learn to live together in a symbiotic relationship with the natural environment and one another. Plans are for the Earth to speak through the Giant Dragonfly, iconic to the hanging swamps of the Garden of Stones.
Our plans for the 2023 Festival include: Art and Sculpture Exhibitions, Giant Dragonfly Lantern making workshop, a Festival of Provocative Ideas, Seven Valleys Food Trail, Yarning Circle at Secret Creek, Guided Tours into Garden of Stones, Live and Local music events, and ending with LithGlow and night market on Saturday 13th.