Blood Orange tops off another sweet serving

By Sean Car

Southbank’s very own music and arts festival Sugar Mountain returns to the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) for a third consecutive year with another delicious serving of music, art and food.

Spearheading another amazing musical line-up of local and international artists on January 21 will be the smooth and scintillating UK singer-songwriter Blood Orange for what will be his only Melbourne show.

Now recording under the pseudonym of Blood Orange, Devonté Hynes has led a blistering career in the arts having collaborated with the likes of Jay-Z, Florence and the Machine and Britney Spears.

His new album Freetown Sound is a smooth mix of mellow sounds and beats combined with intricate social commentary that will make for a unique summer experience for festival-goers.  

“We think Blood Orange is one of those acts in Melbourne that is a much loved act. It’s been an important one to bring out,” festival organiser Tig Huggins said.

“It’s one that we’ve been trying to bring in for a long period of time. His last record is amazing and it’s been very well received and we think it will be a really great part of the line up.”

Other festival highlights include German techno legend Pantha du Prince, Italian synth giant Beppe Loda, American electro-pop producers Moses Sumney and Weyes Blood, and an array of local talent lead by Big Scary and Slum Sociable.

With the festival’s boiler room proving a massive hit for punters over previous years, Tig said organisers had curated this year’s line up with a stronger focus on electronic music.

“We’ve got really great DJs in the line up with Kornel Kovacs, Mood II Swing who are sort of old school American house producers,” he said.

“Then we have some really interesting pop stuff like Jessy Lanza who we think is making really incredible interesting pop music so all in all we think it should be a great day.”

Sugar Mountain has long been renowned for having a heavy focus on visual arts and last year’s festival received some scrutiny for a lack of an artistic presence.

Mr Huggins said it was something organisers had heard and that audiences could expect a much larger splash of art throughout this year’s festival.

“It’s definitely something that we heard and we’ve got some large scale outdoor installations that are going to be made,” he said.

“US artist MOMO will feature a big installation and we’re going to have a really interesting installation from Supergroup London so I think there’s a push for that and it’s something that we’ve taken onboard.”

The amazing Sensory Cafe will also feature again to top off a delicious selection of culinary offerings, and Tig said more exciting announcements would soon follow.

He said the festival was proud to be a “strong community event”, which connected people and exposed them to new things.

“We always want it to be a very convivial, enjoyable environment for people to come and hang out in. I think that’s an important part of the festival experience is providing that point of difference to larger festivals,” he said.

For tickets, full line up and more information visit sugarmountainfestival.com