Announcement: Vision Australia Radio is Access and Inclusion partner to Midsumma Festival in 2024.

Published Dec 18, 2023, 1:55 AM

Vision Australia Radio is proud to announce that we will be an Access and Inclusion partner to Midsumma Festival in 2024. 

Midsumma is Australia's premier queer arts and cultural organisation, bringing together a diverse mix of LGBTQIA+ artists, performers, communities and audiences.

In 2024, Midsumma Festival, will run over 22 days with an explosion of queer events that centre around hidden and mainstream queer culture, involving local, interstate, and international artists.

Vision Australia Radio is making the event more accessible to people living with blindness, low vision or print-disability, by producing an audio version of the programme guide (available at midsumma.org), promoting audio described shows and related tactile tours in the lead up to and during the festival, as well as hosting our first ever live outside broadcast from Midsumma Carnival Day on January 21.

In this interview, Behind the Scenes presenter Chris Thompson catches up with Midsumma's Artist Development Manager, Harriet Devlin along with newly appointed Midsumma Community Ambassador, Karan Nagrani to discuss the festival and the hard work that's gone into making the summer favorite more inclusive than ever before.

Well, a little bit like Vincent Alessi at, uh, Linden Nuart last week. Harriet Devlin is bookending behind the scenes this year. Um, was here right at the start of the year to talk about a midsummer festival, which was happening at that time. Is here again to talk about Midsummer Festival, which isn't happening just yet, but will be from the 21st of January next year to the 11th of February. Welcome back to the show, Harriet.

Thanks, Chris. Really happy to be here. Thanks for having you back.

Now, if I remember correctly, last time you were joined by Francoise. Correct? Um, but this time you are joined by Karen Negroni, who, uh, is, um, community ambassador. I think you are, Karen.

Well. Firstly, thank you so much for pronouncing my name right. Most people get it wrong, so I'm already a big fan of yours.

Thank you. My pleasure. Uh, welcome to the show.

Thank you, thank you. What's a community ambassador to?

Well, this is a good question because I hope you got.

A good answer for it.

It's a loaded title, and the reason I say that because I take this, uh, quite seriously, because growing up as a blind person, as a gay person, I struggled with inclusion. I never felt like I belonged anywhere. So just to be in a position now where I can do something to make other people feel like they're welcome and belong is incredible. So as part of this role, my job is to well, I'm saying it's a job, but it's actually, um, something I'm really excited about. I guess you could like your job. So anyway. So part of my job here is to go to events to give mid-summer feedback. If it's blind friendly, if it's not blind friendly to talk openly about my presence there on social media. So other people with disabilities, especially the blind community, feel like, okay, if he's going there, maybe I'll be okay. That that's the gist of it, to be honest. But like I said, it's a loaded title, but that's.

Another loaded title, which I keep seeing associated with you. Are the words pretty fly for a blind guy? Tell me about that.

Well, so.

As a blind person, well, actually, as a human being, I felt like I've had to come out of two closets my whole life. One being the gay closet, the second one being the blind closet. And I think when I say the blind closet, only blind people will get what I'm saying, because most people that are blind may not look blind. And unless you're using a cane or a guide dog, the assumption is you can see properly. And as a cane user, when I tell people I have a disability or when they see me struggle, they will often question me. You know what's wrong? Your eyes look normal. After coming out of the denial stage, I felt like I had to do something because I didn't want anyone else to feel like how I felt, which was extremely alone, judged and misunderstood. So I thought I would create an Instagram account to raise awareness. And what started off as a little side hustle hobby, where I was just using my film and graphic skills to generate content. Uh, it just led to, you know, wonderful things like being at mid-summer this year.

Harriet, we we've left you out of the conversation altogether.

Oh, that's a great thing. Right? I've really enjoyed listening.

Um, do you work closely with, uh, Karen in the work you do?

Yeah, absolutely. So as the artist development manager at Midsummer Festival, part of my role is managing the Midsummer Pathways program, which is our career development and mentorship program for Lgbtqia+ Odyssey Disability. But I also am looking at access and inclusion across the festival and how we can improve that year on year. And so my role connects quite closely with what Karen's going to be doing over the course of the festival. Between myself and the marketing manager, Felicity, we're sort of working quite closely as a team together, which is really exciting, fantastic.

Now, I wasn't going to say, oh yes, I.

Just want to say that I went to the launch event recently, the Midsummer Program launch event, and I believe they work with the, um, hard of hearing deaf community last year, and I was just blown away by the level of inclusion the things midsummer have done. They've really gone above and beyond to include people that are hard of hearing or deaf, and the fact that they're working with someone like me who is blind, it makes me feel like next year is going to be even more amazing for the blind community. Harriet's doing some really good work.

Are you, um, optimistic about the kind of work you're talking about, Karen, that you might eventually do yourself out of a job, that that inclusion won't be an issue. It just happens. Will we ever get there, do you think?

Um, I feel like inclusion is going to be an ongoing process, and this is why I feel like I get to do that on a daily basis, because I work at Guide Dogs Australia as well in, in in Melbourne, Victoria. And even there I work as an advocate where I will go speak with different corporates or community events and talk about my lived experience just to share information. Because as you would know, when it comes to the blind community, there's a lot of misconceptions out there. You know, I could go on and on with the fact. So, for example, most people think blindness means you see nothing at all, whereas that's roughly just 10 to 15% of the blind population people would see. Someone would normalise a guide dog and question whether the person is taking it. So I feel like inclusion is going to be an ongoing topic. And I guess a good example would be the LGBTQIa plus community. Uh, we've come a long way, but there's still so much work to do. So when it comes to blind people, uh, or people with disabilities, inclusion is going to be an ongoing process, but it's getting better each year.

I wasn't quite correct before when I said that midsummer hasn't started yet, that it won't start till at 21st of January, because if you were listening to. His show in October. You would know that midsummer has had a regional presence since then with Victoria's Pride. Um, that will culminate during the festival, I think, on the 11th of February with a street party. Uh, Harriet, can you report back on anything to do with Victoria's pride, how it's been going? I mean.

It's a beautiful segue, Chris, because yes, we are planning away. We are very close to being able to, uh, announce our headliner. But also, Karen will be on site at Victoria's Pride and will be speaking as part of the formal proceedings in the afternoon, which is really exciting. So that's a nice little link we also have at Victoria's Pride this year. Uh, so that's our street party for those who haven't heard of it before at, uh, Smith and Gertrude Street in Fitzroy. And yes, we have a range of regional activations that kind of feed into that, um, street party. On the 11th of February last year, midsummer led a tactile tour in partnership with Veritas, which was so successful it booked out within a couple of days, I think, of going live. So this year the tactile tour is going to be, um, larger. It's going to be an extravaganza. I'm saying it's going to be longer, it's going to be, um, it's going to be able to include more people because it was such a success last year. So, um, you know, I highly encourage people to check that event out. There's so much to experience on the day. Um, there's two stages, there's stalls, there's lots of musical performances as well as speakers and different activations in shop windows, as well as, of course, our regional program participants will be presenting work there as well. So it's a great day, a very vibrant part of the festival, and we're very proud of that event.

Fantastic. But we've got ahead of ourselves. Harriet, that's the end.

Of the festival.

There must be stuff happening before that.

There's plenty very.

Busy. Um, yes. There's plenty. And look, I can talk to you about a few different events.

That are really.

Please do across the course of the festival. Of course, we'll kick off on the 21st of January with Midsummer Carnival down at Alexandra Gardens. At that event will have describer guides on site through BC Veritas from 12 p.m. until 6 p.m. so people can meet at the info tent. They can do a tour of the precinct at that event. Again, we have live music performance, we have a sold precinct so people can come down and meet different LGBTQIa plus organisations, which is a really bustling, sort of exciting part of the event. And look, people come specifically for that stalls precinct. Um, um, as part of that, uh, Virgin Australia Radio will actually be on site.

I believe we are, yes.

Yeah. So, um, you know, we can we can see each other face to face on that day. And I believe that there'll be a broadcast happening as well on that day by Virgin Australia Radio on site. That's what I've heard.

That's what I've heard too. So, you know, there you go.

Snap. Maybe we'll see.

Each other then again there.

Chris.

Um, you never know your luck.

That's it.

That's it. So.

So that's, uh, our first event many people possibly will know about, uh, Pride March, which is happening on the 4th of February. That's another one of Midsummer's signature events that also will have a describer guide on site who's sort of calling the the mark in a way. Aside from that, you know, we've talked about a big event that midsummer produces. We also have, uh, an event called Midsummer Matters, uh, which is happening at Fred's Square on the 3rd of February. Uh, and that event is for people who are interested in, uh, panels and discussions around, um, arts disability. Um, this year we have two fantastic panels. Uh, the first one is called Radical Acts of Joy and gathering, and that panel has been co-designed with artists that are part of our Midsummer Pathways program and features some really amazing artists like Caroline Patrick, who's coming over from Perth to be part of the panel. Um, we've also got Alyssa Baldwin, Jamila mayne. It'll be facilitated by Aquino, and they'll be talking about being artists who live with disability and what it means to be radical, what it means to have joy and gather. And that's a really exciting event that will be happening for the first time this year. We've also got an event at Lima Courthouse on the fifth of Feb, so that's a busy weekend there in the middle of it at the beginning of February called Midsummer Cup, which is also come out of, uh, midsummer Pathways. So midsummer is a celebration of LGBTQIa plus identities, disability and neurodiversity through performance. And at that event, there will be six artists who have been part of the Midsummer Pathways program, presenting ten minutes worth of work. Now that event will be live streamed, they'll have subscriber guides on on site, and we'll also be embedding some visual descriptions of of the performance as we go through. So really interesting opportunity to check. Some experimental work, and there'll be some fabulous artists as part of that lineup.

Fantastic. What can you tell me about Kooi of Photo?

Uh, Clear Photo is a massive visual art project that's happening in Melbourne's west for the first time this year.

It seems to be at places all over the west.

Yes, it.

Is. It is actually. So it's presented by mid-summer and photo 2024 International Festival of Photography in association with Trocadero Project. And it's really about large scale, free outdoor artwork. And it's happening in Footscray, Newport and Werribee. And it's actually it's like a festival within a festival. So it's going to run from the 27th of January, which is sort of a weekend to mid-summer festival. And then it runs all the way to the 24th of March, which also encompasses Photo International festival dates as well. And midsummer is curating a public programme of events which are free. There's workshops, there's talks, there's tours, some really exciting work there, and the photo exhibition itself, where photo has been curated by Brendan McCleary, and he has some incredible international artists who are going to be part of that exhibition. So really worth checking out that project.

Now on last week's show. Stephen Armstrong from Arts Centre Melbourne was here and going through all the fabulous things that are happening at Arts Centre Melbourne over the summer, he made a very brief mention of overflow, which of course is not just at Arts Centre Melbourne, but it's also part of midsummer. What can you tell us about overflow?

Yeah, so overflow is part of our Bravest Base Midsummer Presents program this year, and it's from internationally acclaimed writer and one of the UK's most prominent trans voices. Travis Alexander is coming to the Victorian premiere of a future classic directed by Dimitri Artists. So it's set in a toilet cubicle and there's a character called Rosie who is sort of, uh, going through her memories of bathroom encounters. And it's a one person show. It's had fantastic reviews internationally. There'll be a tactile tour and an audio described performance of overflow, which is really exciting. And that season runs from the 31st of January to the 4th of February at Art centre Melbourne. So it's a really exciting, original trans work and something that I think obviously fits the theme of driver spaces really beautifully this year in terms of our trans communities everyday, needing to be able to engage in spaces that are not necessarily welcoming or inclusive for them.

Karen, I'm guessing you've got an access. All areas pass to this festival. Is there something at the top of your list, the thing that you're sort of hanging out to see?

Uh, absolutely. The tactile events are going to be top of my list, but I'm also a big Dolly diamond fan.

Uh, Dolly diamond.

Definitely going to the Dolly diamond show. I've already got my tickets for that. I'll be a part of the parade. I'll be working with guide dogs. I'll be part of the treat parade. And then, of course, I'm just looking forward to being around. And I'm really hoping people that have disabilities, especially the blind community, come up to me and share their feedback with me so we can make this more inclusive for them. So my aim is to try and be everywhere. So I'm seeing pun intended and then yeah, do some great work in midsummer.

Harriet, I think one of the first shows at 45 down stairs for 2024 is an epic piece called The Inheritance. We've got to see that in two chunks. It's so big, don't we?

Oh, yes. Look, that is a huge piece. Uh, and it's won some awards as well. So it's a Tony and Olivier Award winner for Best play. It takes inspiration from the novel by Ian Foster, Howards End, and it spans generations in an exquisitely truthful and funny exploration of love and legacy. So this one's directed by Tom Petrovsky, who did the beautiful work last year. Um, The Gospel According to these is Queen of Heaven, and that was an absolutely stunning production, and I have no doubt that The inheritance will also be similarly stunning. So absolutely worth checking out.

I think also directed the Patricia Cornelius piece in the club at TheatreWorks. Correct. A little bit earlier this year.

Yeah that's right, that's right. So a bit of an up and comer.

Absolutely. We're super supportive of Keaton's work and he's doing some fantastic stuff at MTC, I believe as well. So yeah, really worth checking it out. And really exciting artist who's on the move and doing lots of work around Melbourne and no doubt across the country. Pretty soon we've.

Probably really only scratched the surface, haven't we? But people can go on to the Midsomer website and find out more details about what we've been talking about, and more details about the things we haven't had time to cover. Harriet, I have to say I'm really impressed because we did not plan the order of things that we were going to talk about, and we. When I threw at you, you just knew exactly what was going on with it.

Hey, look.

That's my job, to be across all of the different things that we're doing at the festival. And look, I wanted to mention just on the website, something new that we are doing this year. We actually have an audio format program, which has been developed by Virgin Australia Radio as part of our partnership with them. It's a new partnership this year. They've come on board as an access and inclusion partner, and they've actually done a beautiful job of anyone who's interested in audio described or tactile tours, events with those kinds of service provisions. Jason has actually done an excellent job of breaking it down week by week. Or you can listen to a 20 minute sort of audio format program. So if you feel like you want a bit of a broader range of of events, that's one way to kind of check out our program if you're interested. And we'd love feedback, of course, about that. Um, about that new addition this year to see how people are engaging with it. But otherwise, yes, of course. Check out our website, Gheorghiu. It's got the full programme. There's so much going on. It's all the way across Melbourne and we'd love to see people there during the festival are beautifully done.

Uh, Harriet Devlin, Karen Negroni, uh, you better rest up for the next month.

Because.

Starting on the 21st of January and running to the 11th of February, midsummer is just gonna go off.

Absolutely. And my. I hope my fellow blondies will come and see me and bling up your canes and bling up your dog harnesses and let's have some fun.

It's all about the bling.

It is, it is.

Uh, Harriet and Karen, thanks so much for being on the show and chokers for the festival.

Thanks, Chris. Thanks for having us.

Thank you.

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