The actor and artist Shia LaBeouf, the Community creator and podcaster Dan Harmon, the Serial executive producer Julie Snyder and videos of cats are the prime attractions at Bingefest, a new 24-hour festival to take place at the Sydney Opera House this December.
The Opera House’s first new festival in five years, Bingefest will focus on everything from TV and podcasts to memes and games, giving audiences a series of events that range from Buffy-watching marathons to Street Fighter tournaments.
Headliner LaBeouf’s recent projects and public appearances have been notable for their absurdist leanings, such as live-streaming footage of himself watching his all his own films back-to-back and occupying an Oxford elevator for 24 hours.
LaBeouf and his collaborators from both these projects, the Finnish artist Nastja Säde Rönkkö and the UK artist Luke Turner, will be embracing their uber-modernist tendencies, performing “a new participatory performance artwork” commissioned for Bingefest over the course of the weekend.
Snyder, a senior producer at the US radio program This American Life and an executive producer of the hit podcast Serial, will give a presentation about “binge-worthy journalism”.
Harmon, the creator of the US television comedy series Community, will join Australian comedians Celia Pacquola and Luke McGregor for an event that organisers hope will pair panel discussion with creative collaboration. There will also be a live recording of Harmon’s weekly comedy podcast, Harmontown. Jad Abumrad – the co-creator and host of the radio show and podcast Radiolab – will be presenting on “gut-churn” and the creative process.
Other highlights include an overnight Buffy marathon curated by the pop culture website the AV Club, which will also be hosting All the TV You Should Have Watched By Now; the Internet Cat Video Festival, a family-friendly hour of cat videos and cat-related activities; and the Harambe Memorial Service, in which a panel of journalists and comedians, including Mark Di Stefano, Rosie Waterland, James Colley and Dan Ilic relive the biggest memes in internet history.
“Television, podcasts, gaming and the internet at large create an artistic frame through which we view the world,” said Bingefest’s founder and curator, Danielle Harvey. The festival will take place on 17–18 December at the Sydney Opera House.
