WA Day Festival: Singer Amy Shark to headline the family-friendly event on Sunday night at Burswood Park

Pop superstar Amy Shark is quickly becoming an honorary West Australian and her love affair with our state will take an “adventurous” turn when the Australian Idol star headlines the WA Day Festival on Sunday night. The 37-year-old Only Wanna Be With You hitmaker has bagged herself the headline slot to close out a musical spectacular at Burswood Park at 8.30pm. It’s her second show in our state in a month. The star blew away fans at Bunbury’s Groovin’ the Moo festival only in May. She is also heading back in November to support Coldplay at Optus Stadium. WA is a priority fan base for the chart sensation who desperately pleaded with former Premier Mark McGowan last year during a border closure to let her in to play with fans. Back then she joked to McGowan: “I’ll do anything before the show I’ll wash your car, mow your lawn, cook you dinner, clean out your gutters, just please let us back in. Amy.” Since, Shark says she has grown in confidence and is shaking off her “imposter syndrome” after scaling the charts. “This new era of Amy Shark is exciting. Every year I get a little more confident in what I do. I get a little bit more adventurous,” the Queenslander said. With rain threatening to hit her set, Shark has assured fans she is always ready to give her best show whatever the weather. Shark explained “if anything goes down, like if shit gets crazy and a track goes down, or keys don’t work, I know that I’ve got my guitars there so I can just play and I’ve had to do that before - just play an old acoustic song. So I guess that’s really good, because I go out there fully confident knowing no matter what I can put on a show.” Shark tops a bumper line up on the day including a homecoming welcome set from Eurovision rockers Voyager. The band are getting accustomed to their new found fame. Singer and lawyer-by-day Danny Estrin said ahead of their afternoon set at 4pm: “I did try to have a burrito the other day and had two selfies during the burrito, so it has changed, you know life for personalities is very difficult these days, go to make sure I look my very best when I exit the house.” The State’s Transport Minister, and soon-to-be Deputy Premier, Rita Saffioti says both acts will be a celebration of the best WA and Australian talent for fans. “I think celebrating Australian music is a good thing and I think Amy Shark is a brilliant performer and Mark Seymour, a very iconic Australian act so I think the line-up is pretty exciting and of course we’ve got Voyager and that’s going to be our home-grown talent,” Saffioti said. Travel on all Transperth services is free across both days. “Last year what we saw was a lot of people have come to the celebrate WA event and it was probably more popular than anyone had anticipated so as a result the footprint will be larger, we’ll be moving closer to the station, free public transport, extra trains running. There’ll be a shuttle service between the city and the stadium station and also more frequent services towards Armadale,” Ms Saffioti said. “It’s the start of our new program which will see free public transport for the first Sunday of every month.” “Come along, enjoy the day, catch public transport, it’ll be the easiest way to get in and out of the festivities.” The musical bonanza caps an incredible 48 hour free celebration for locals on the WA Day weekend which will see top chefs attend and over 70 food trucks to feast from. A spectacular 500 drone show will light up the skies on Sunday with iconic West Australian symbols and images. There will be family fun activations from Scitech, WA Museum, HBF, Channel 7, APM, Alcoa, Spud Shed, Coles, Perth Mint, RAC & DEFS Rescue Helicopter. Celebrate WA Chairman Michael Anghie said: “The WA Day Festival is a free family-friendly event that encourages community participation and civic pride, all while supporting the many WA businesses involved in large events of this magnitude.” For more info head to www.facebook.com/WADayFestival or waday.com