NEVER did Laura Burzacott imagine when leaving to pursue performing arts that she would return to her hometown in a popular A capella group.
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Burzacott, with Ginger and Tonic, are coming back to Ballarat in a bid to help improve food security across the region by song.
The quartet is set to perform in gala dinner event Art for a Cause early next month.
For Burzacott, the performance is a fun way to give back to the community that gave her the boost to start out living and performing in Melbourne.
The Damascus College graduate said a Ballarat Arts Foundation grant when she was 19 years old helped set her up with a career she loves.
“Expect lively and very fun in the show. We always get people laughing,” Burzacott said. “(Food security) is such a great cause and this is for something a lot of people don’t think about in Ballarat.
“There is a lot of awareness for other health concerns, like cancer, but when it comes to poverty and not eating it’s not something you realise is around as much.”
Burzacott joined Ginger and Tonic about four years ago via a cabaret festival. The group performed for a function at Housey Housey two years ago and Burzacott said the food was amazing.
Now, Burzacott looked forward to tasting a different part of Ballart’s impressive, growing foodie culture.
Ginger and Tonic will provide the performing aspect of Art for a Cause while Craig’s Royal Hotel, under prominent chef Ian Curley, will “French it Up” for an artistic four-course meal.
The event will also feature a high-end art auction as a visual arts tilt to the cause.
All proceeds will go to The Ballarat Foundation, an honourary trust working with charities across the region to create social change. Funds raised in the art auction will go to #FeedBallarat to create a food bank in Ballarat.
Theatre Works director Bryce Ives, from Ballarat, will emcee the event at Craig’s Royal Hotel.
Expect lively, very fun...and this is for something a lot of people don't think about in Ballarat.
- Laura Burzacott, Ginger and Tonic
Ives and Burzacott are set to lead theatre workshops for emerging teenage artists in Swan Hill ahead of the event.
They hope to inspire a creative pathway for young regional performers.
Art for a Cause is on September 6. More details: theballaratfoundation.org.au.
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