SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Returning to South Orange, SouthNEXT, begins Friday, Oct. 6, with “KICKoff,” the annual three-floor cocktail party and creative extravaganza that fills the South Orange Performing Arts Center, 1 SOPAC Way. Over the weekend, SouthNEXT expands to include a new outdoor venue in the heart of the village center, where tented pavilions will flank a center midway and beer garden, giving attendees easy access to a sprogram of music, art and ideas offering dynamic and interesting perspectives.
Festival founder and South Orange Village Trustee Stephen Schnall is excited about the 2017 SouthNEXT theme of “Under the Big Top.”
“This year’s SouthNEXT enters a magical realm where we celebrate the fact that even though Ringling Bros. has staged its final performance, the circus lives on inside all of us,” Schnall said in a press release. “Once the circus was a place we went to see ‘them’: the freaks, the magicians, the clowns and daredevils. But over time, we realized and embraced the fact that ‘them’ were really ‘us.’ And that’s what our incredible weekend will bring to life.”
A major new feature of SouthNEXT will be the construction and metamorphosis of a community sculpture, starting on Friday night with guests assembling the first pieces at KICKoff. Keeping with the theme of “Under the Big Top,” this year’s collaborative effort will be “Jumbo the Elephant.” Jumbo will be created over the course of the weekend and be revealed to the crowd in its finished form on Sunday and conclude with an exciting transformation.
“The elephant was an icon of the circus, but it symbolizes so much more in many cultures; so SouthNEXT will celebrate this majestic beast all weekend long,” Danni Michaeli, a member of the festival’s board who proposed the concept, said. “From sessions dedicated to the Hindu deity Ganesha to a reading and celebration of the iconic picture book which tells the story of how PT Barnum used elephants to prove the safety of the new Brooklyn Bridge, we’ll look at the mighty elephant from all angles.”
Admission is charged. Find the full weekend lineup of music, arts and ideas at www.southnextnj.com.
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