Sea Stories celebrates ocean's transformative force at Newcastle's New Annual festival
The 'Sea Stories' immersive audio production is being featured at Newcastle's New Annual festival, blending music and personal narratives about the ocean. The project features diverse local voices sharing transformative experiences with the water.
Why it matters
It demonstrates how arts and culture can foster community connection and provide meditative, reflective experiences in public spaces.
Roslyn Oades's production Sea Stories is part of the 2026 New Annual festival in Newcastle. ( Supplied: New Annual )
Link copied Share Share article In the pre-dawn half-light, people sit in chairs and on picnic blankets on the sand of Dixon Park beach in the coastal city of Newcastle.
Wearing headphones and gazing at the ocean, they are there for Sea Stories, an immersive aural work created by Melbourne theatre-maker Roslyn Oades for Newcastle's New Annual festival.
Each morning during the week-long festival, this communal listening experience unfolds as the sun slowly rises above the horizon.
"Everyone is watching the ocean … listening to this score that's designed to synchronise with the stages of sunrise," Oades tells ABC Arts.
"It's been really wonderful to work with the Newcastle ocean lovers," Oades says. ( Supplied: Thomas McCammon )
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