Paul Simon to headline Bluesfest

Byron Bay Bluesfest, Australia's premier blues and roots music festival, celebrates its 24th anniversary with a supreme line up. Both international and Australian blues and roots performers will play their inspired tunes during five days over the Easter long weekend at Byron Bay, New South Wales.

The annual music festival -winner of 2010 Australian event of the year- is expected to attract more than 17,500 visitors this time. Attendees will have to opportunity to see and listen to more than 200 performances of the best blues, folk, soul and world artists on six different stages from 28 March to 1 April. Tickets range from $335 AU for a three-day pass and $455 for a five-day pass.

This is a very exciting year for Bluesfest as multi-award and 12 time Grammy winner Paul Simon will be performing at the event on Easter Monday. In 2003, the American musician was given a Grammy Lifetime Achivement award for his work as half of the duo Simon and Farfunkel. Adding Paul Simon to Bluesfest 2013 is pretty mind blowing, even for me, said Festival Director Peter Noble.

I knew the line-up was going to be massive, but it just keeps getting bigger. So many incredible artists are going to perform at Bluesfest, it really is every Festival Director's dream come true and I am so humbled, Noble added.

Alongside Paul Simon, Robert Plant -the legendary front man of band Led Zeppelin- will headline the band while presenting the Sensational Space Shifters.

Announcing Robert Plant a couple of weeks ago and now adding Paul Simon, it's like: Wow... we are really doing it this time and I actually think we are breaking all previous records. This is going to be the best Bluesfest of all time, Noble stated.

Indeed, this year's line up is incredibly exciting and the soil of Byron Bay will burst with talent. Needless to say, it is a luxury to gather Grammy Award winners on the same event, and the excitement continues... Latin Jazz Rockers Santana -who have won eight Grammy Awards and three Latin Awards- are also part of this magnificent line up. The particular sounds of Carlos Santana's guitar promises to arise intense sensations in the audience.

Bluesfest favourite Ben Jarper is coming back this year. Ex Supertramp singer/song writer Roger Hodgon will join the other artists, alongside reggae icon Jimmy Cliff, punk rock innovators Iggy & The Stooges, awe inspiring rock band Wilco, R&B star Mavis Stapies, Sixto Sugarman Rodriguez and so many more.

Taking the stage before Paul Simon will be the Canadian singer-songwriter and composer Rufus Wainwright. The musician has been referred to by Elton John as the greatest songwriter on the planet and has been praised by the New York Times for his genuine originality.

Without a doubt, this will be a year to remember for Bluesfest.

Driving Miss Daisy into Oz

Driving Miss Daisy is a heart-warming and ingenious play that tells the story of Daisy Werthan (Lansbury), a widowed elderly Jewish woman in Atlanta whose son employs Hoke Colburn (Jones), an African American chauffeur, to drive her around. The play follows the evolution of their friendship over 25 years in the context of the civil rights movements.

The storyline explores their condition as outsiders in a WASP-dominated society for being Jewish -Miss Daisy- and African American -Colburn. Both characters come from different worlds in terms of social classes, but as the years roll on, their friendship blossoms, they move past prejudice and their own differences, and learn to rely on each other.

The play was the first in Uhry's Atlanta Trilogy, which deals with white Jewish residents of that city in the early 20th century. The story inspired the beloved Oscar-winning film Driving Miss Daisy from 1989 with Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy.

Bryan Adams to rock Down Under

Multi-Grammy Award winner Bryan Adams returns to Australian shores for his first arena rock tour since 2005. Fans Down Under will have the opportunity to listen to classic tunes of this Canadian musician like Summer of '69, (Everything I do) I do it for You, Heaven and Please Forgive me.

Special guest Amy MacDonald will join Bryan Adams in his tour. The Scottish artist rose to fame in 2007 with her debut album This is the Life and its fourth single of the same name. The single ranked number one in six countries, while reaching the top ten on the charts of another eleven countries.

While Adams is in Sydney, he will also headline the famous festival Bluesfest. The famous music festival that takes place at Byron enjoys an amazing line-up that includes Paul Simon, Ben Harper, Rufus Wainwright, Santana, and many more.

In 2011 Bryan Adams brought to Australia his up close and personal Bare Bones sell out theatre tour, which brought critics and fans to a state of ecstasy. During 2011 tour, Adams played the most intimate venues of his career in Oz.

This year Bryan Adams will start his tour in Wollongong on April 18, then he will perform in Sydney on April 19, in Melbourne on April 20, in Adelaide on April 24, in Newcastle on April 26, and finally in Brisbane on April 27.

In the 1980s, the Canadian singer recorded It's Only Love with Tina Turner, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. Bryan Adams is also famous for his collaboration in 1994 with Rod Stewart and Stong for the single All for love written for the Motion Picture Soundtrack of the movie Three Muskeeteers.

The successful soundtrack was followed by Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman? which was released with the Motion Picture Soundtrack of the movie Don Juan DeMarco, featuring Johnny Depp. Adams is also renowned for his single (Everything I do) I do it for You, which was his second number one hit single in the Billboard Hot 100 and was the soundtrack for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner.

Australia's Top 8 Film Festivals

As Australian films, actors, directors, screenwriters and producers gather enjoy a blossoming recognition in the country and abrod, the blog specialized in Film festivals movr has published a list of the top 8 film festivals for 2013 Down Under.

1) Tropfest: The world's largest short film festival takes place annually plus international versions. This year it was celebrated on February 17 in Sydney.

2) St Kilda Film Festival: features The Top 100 Australian shorts. This year it celebrates its 30th anniversary and it will take place in Melbourne from May 23 to June 1st.

3) Sydney Film Festival (SFF): is Australia's film showcase. It was established back in 1954, so now it is pushing 6 decades. It will take place in Sydney from 5 to 16 June. It offers Australia's largest prize pool ($84,000).

4) Revelation – Perth International Film Festival: focuses on progressive cinema. It is celebrated from the 4th to the 14th of July.

5) Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF): The World's largest showcase of Australian cinema. It takes place in Melbourne from 25 July to 11 August. It was founded in 1951 and thus it is Australia's oldest film festival.

6) Adelaide Film Festival (AFF): Celebrates the screen in all its diversity. It takes place every second year and on 2013 it is celebrated from 10 to 20 October.

7) Canberra International Film Festival (CIFF): A 12-day showcase of the best films from around the globe. Film aficionados will be able to see in it from October 30th to November 10th.

8) Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF): Provides a focus for film culture in Queensland. It is celebrated over 14 days from mid to late November.

Australian film festival offer unique opportunities for both filmmakers and film lovers. The first enjoy an incredible opportunity for exposure, awards and prize money. For the latter, film festivals offer access to the largest array of Australian and International movie variety, rarely found in regular cinema programs.

Antony Hing, writer at the popular film festival site blog.movr.com commented, It is the high proportion of international film content actively sought by many of Australia's best film festivals to supplement domestic content that makes these festivals among the most popular choices for indie and emerging filmmakers from Australia, the USA, EU, Canada, Asia and other international filmmaker communities.

He adds, Australian film festival audiences continue to affirm their enthusiasm and appetite for a high level of creative and cultural diversity, if one considers the sustained levels of attendance numbers, with several events attracting in excess of 100,000 fans.

Antony notes, Tropfest Australia, in Sydney has a typical attendance of 150,000 and 1,000,000 TV viewers. St Kilda Film Festival in Melbourne, will attract close to 300,000 fans. Melbourne International Film Festival, Australia's oldest, will attract about 200,000 movie buffs. While Sydney doesn't yet beat these audience numbers it trumps the rest with the biggest prize pool, last year awarding prizes totalling A$84,000 across 7 films.

However, what makes a festival an ideal event for one filmmaker is likely to be different for another, "so we decided to make it easy for filmmakers to find out which of these Film Festivals will best fit their promotional needs. Filmmakers can visit blog.movr.com and compare these eight film festivals across more than 15 major attributes and key dates – all in one spot, said Antony, co-founder of the popular social movie site Movr.com.