This event has been cancelled due to Bondi Festival’s postponed opening. For more info, please see our Latest News.

“A legend of the Jazz and Blues scene, and a consummate storyteller, it is an honour to have Marlene at Bondi Festival.” – Troy Russell, First Nations Music Programmer

Marlene Cummins is a proud Guguyelandji and Woppaburra woman and Australia’s foremost Indigenous blues performer.

Marlene presents a biographical journey through her music; a myriad of political, social and personal experiences that connect her lyrics and songs. With a mixture of original and traditional blues numbers, Marlene weaves beautiful melodies through both her vocals and her saxophone.

Marlene’s life is the story of her people and she tells it through her art: her lyrics, her on-stage performances as both an actor and singer, and more recently through documentary film making. Marlene refined her skills as a blues saxophonist and songwriter at the Berklee College of Music Boston in the mid-90s and has been performing live for as long as she can remember. Marlene is also an artist, Aboriginal Australian activist, broadcaster, dancer and actor.  She is the subject of Rachel Perkins’ documentary, Black Panther Woman. 

“The life Marlene has lived is closer to the life that produced those original blues singers like Muddy Waters, than any contemporary American blues artist.” (Richard Field, Producer)

Accessibility Info:

This is a Sight No Obstacle and Language No Obstacle performance.
Click here for more information about Accessibility at Bondi Festival.

Presented by:

Marlene Cummins

This event has been cancelled due to Bondi Festival’s postponed opening. For more info, please see our Latest News.