ST KILDA FESTIVAL: BIG SUNDAY

Headliners for Big Festival Sunday include Hoodoo Gurus, Yothu Yindi, Confidence Man, Genesis Owusu, Teen Jesus & the Jean Teasers, Mick Harvey and many, many more.

After two years of Covid disruption and adaptation, the St Kilda Festival’s Big Sunday is back and bigger than ever in 2023 for its 42nd iteration. What this means is a huge weekend of free Australian live music, family-friendly activities, food and markets, drawing crowds into the foreshore, gardens and streets of St Kilda.

St Kilda Festival Lead, Sullivan Patten, fully expects a return to the big festival numbers of pre-pandemic celebrations.

“This is our first big re-emergence after Covid,” they said. “February 2022 was presented in a more spaced-out format, with smaller events over nine days. We’re heading back into that big festival format where we’d historically expect around 400,000 visitors on Big Festival Sunday alone, from Melbourne and beyond.

“Now with the inclusion of First Peoples First on the Saturday, we’re bringing together an incredible weekend-long celebration of the best of Australian music. Thanks to additional funding support from the Victorian Government, we’ve been able to bolster the programming budget to get a few more big-name headliners, and we’re pretty excited that we’re able to present multiple stages and around 70 artists.”

The St Kilda Festival has long been a platform for emerging artists to find their feet in the industry and play alongside some big names. For 2023, artists will perform at the Main Stage at the foreshore, O’Donnell Gardens and The Push Stage, Catani Gardens Stage, Triangle Stage, Locals Stage on Acland Street, and the New Music Competition stage on Fitzroy Street, as well as roving musicians, entertainers and buskers.

“It offers a real range of live music, with different genres and feels,” Sullivan said. “I’m really excited about the line-up. We’ve got a lot of great up-and-coming acts and emerging artists, programmed alongside more established performers and some highly-recognisable names. Hopefully you’ll see some you already know and discover some new favourites.”

While the focus is on live music, the festival also sees the closure of several roads to become pedestrian promenades and markets. The site extends across a kilometre, featuring an eclectic mix of performers, demonstrations, workshops, market stalls and family activities. And when it comes to the array of food, there will be something for everyone.

There’ll be extended trading along Fitzroy St and Acland St, showcasing the existing brick-and-mortar businesses, and also itinerant traders with market stalls and food trucks.

Continuing the legacy of supporting and highlighting community groups is vital to the St Kilda Festival.

“As a community festival it’s important to offer community groups the chance to be involved as well,” Sullivan said. “Everything from dance groups to local fishing groups and sporting groups. It’s a festival with a 42-year history, so it’s seen changes that are reflective of how St Kilda has evolved over the years. Each year we’re trying to adapt, adjust and grow with the climate of the industry and community. It started as a small community festival and a celebration of live music, which have always been at its core, and that mindset is important to why people value it and its place in the festival landscape. We would never want to lose that.”

In fact, a number of changes to the festival this year will further improve access in line with this community-minded spirit of inclusion.

“We’ve been fortunate to receive a grant from the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria to build upon our accessibility,” Sullivan said. “We’re adding Auslan to the stages, will be providing some shuttle buses and buggies that can ferry people with access needs, creating some ‘chillout’ spaces and quiet zones, providing mobility equipment hire and a more dedicated space in O’Donnell Gardens to improve physical access and ease of flow for people with prams and small children, rather than battling it out in the crowds down by the beach.”

St Kilda Festival’s Big Sunday is on February 19 and totally free, happening across St Kilda Foreshore and surrounds. These articles were made in partnership with City of Port Phillip.