Electric and unexpected, SURGE is a high-voltage extravaganza of art and performance from Newcastle’s most exciting early-career artists.

Curated by Tantrum Youth Arts and transforming Newcastle Museum for one night only, SURGE is a punk explosion of new performance, music, and interactive, visual and installation art. 

SURGE is part-art party and part-provocation into the interdisciplinary, with audiences invited to curiously curate their own evening from offerings of both scheduled performances and walk-in experiences: 

Relive your teenage PDHPE class with the most unhinged teachers imaginable; be rocketed into space for a shimmering alien encounter; join the factory line of a pick/pack to explore workplace tensions; meet outrageous music-creating monsters and make some noise; and more genre-bending surprises to come. 

Stay for one performance or go all-in. Come for the thing you know you’re gonna love; stay for the unexpected. We double dare you. 

Full program and timings available in September. 

Date and Time
5:00 pm to 9:30 pm, Friday 3rd October
Come for the whole party or just selected experiences. Full schedule published in September.

Recommended Audience Age
SURGE is suitable for ages 16+

Access Information
Newcastle Museum is a fully accessible venue. Social stories will be available in September, which will outline what you can expect for the event.

Sensory Elements
The SURGE works may contain flashing lights and loud sounds. Individual warnings will be available closer to the date.

SURGE Creative Team

Associate Producers: Alana McGaughey and Phoebe Turnbull
Creative Director: Penelope Kentish

SURGE Artists

Tantrum Youth Arts has been making explosive new work for almost 50 years. As a hub for early career artist development, Tantrum has curated the most exciting collection of early-career artists from the Hunter and supported them in developing new work for SURGE. This marks a dynamic and boundary pushing moment in Tantrum’s history, as it returns to New Annual for a fourth year.

Alana McGaughey: Theatre maker who creates work on the politics of living, on being an engaged participant in the ethics surrounding your own existence within the social order of now.

Bethany O’Sullivan: Multi-instrumentalist muso, lover of noise, creator of playful, energetic sound.

BRuSH: Dynamic, musical interplay and conversations between sax and drums, utilising electronic elements triggered in real time.

Jada Laurie: Warrimay, Birrbay woman, performer and multidisciplinary artist who is loudly passionate about creating joyful art.

Joshua Ingle: VJ and installation artist who creates responsive pieces using light, sound, and code to explore habits and ritual.

Phoebe Turnbull: Feral theatre maker and hopeful performer who explores ideas of care and attention.

Sanziana Timis: Multidisciplinary artist who captures a restlessness in people and nature, exploring feminist themes and the invisible.

Shaana-Anne: Multidisciplinary visual artist with an alienatic style visible to the empathetic viewer.

SURGE Ensemble: Newcastle’s newest training ground for early-career artists, exploring experimental immersive theatre experiences.

Tara Barrington: Queer movement artist whose practice seeks to unpack feminist ideology by exploring the interplay of softness and strength through shape and texture.

“Tantrum is the best thing in New Annual”
“Best show I’ve ever seen!”
“You made the night MAGICAL”

– Feedback for Tantrum’s 2024 New Annual event WonderCity

“You keep Newcastle weird and creative”

– A Facebook fan

SURGE is supported by the NSW Government though Create NSW.