Shell National Folkloric Festival was an annual ethnic folk festival held in Australia. Sponsored by the Shell Group of Companies with a grant of $50,000, the first Shell National Folkloric Festival was held at the Concert Hall during the opening celebrations of the Sydney Opera House in 1973.[1]
In 1975 one thousand performers, representing 30 ethnic groups living in Australia, performed folk music, song and dance at the Opera House,[1] and by 1987 this had grown to 1400 performers representing 41 different ethnic groups[2]
One of its first producer-directors was Victor Carell (Victor Thomas Cioccarelli), who with his wife Beth Dean (a notable Australian ballerina and choreographer) auditioned ethnic groups in Sydney, Adelaide. Canberra, and Wollongong for the festival.
From 1979 to 1994, Guillermo Keys-Arenas was the major artistic director of the annual event. The festivals were held in Sydney at first but later were held in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Darwin and Brisbane.[3]
Between 1973–1975 performers representing ethnic groups from Australia, Austria, Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, and Ukraine, performed at the Festival.[4]
Groups which performed at the Festival included: