Page 2 - August Billy News Today

How Midsumma Festival used City of Melbourne funding to deliver their magnificent 2021 event Reuben Kaye at Midsumma Live at the Bowl - image by Suzanne Balding Words by August Billy We speak to Midsumma chief executive Karen Bryant about how funding via City of Melbourne’s Event Partnership Program helped the festival adapt and prosper in 2021. Even as COVID ran rampant through Victoria, postponing and closing many venues, events and festivals Melburnians lo...

Words by August Billy The Moogai, which is screening at St Kilda Film Festival. Filmmaker Jon Bell lives on Bundjalung country in Casino, northern NSW. Bell’s career ­work – which includes the TV dramas Redfern Now and The Gods of Wheat Street – has largely focused on the contemporary experiences of Australia’s Indigenous people. Bell’s latest project, The Moogai, is a 15-minute psychological horror film, which he wrote and directed. The action centres on a young Indigenous couple...

There’s some great tracks and one not so good. Our singles column fires up for another week with spots for Alice Skye, Sleater-Kinney, Quivers and You Am I. We’ll let you decide which artists hit the spot and which band stunk it up. Keep up to date with all the latest music interviews, news and […]

After a difficult 2020, Thornbury Records has relocated to High St, Northcote Words By August Billy We chat to Thornbury Records owner and manager Clayton Pegus about the tough journey to his new store. Thornbury Records launched in the early months of 2011. At the time, Thornbury wasn’t quite the bustling locale of cafes, bars and boutiques it is today. Although it mightn’t be accurate to give T-Recs all the credit for catalysing this evolution, it was definitely one o...

Our top picks from the 2021 St Kilda Film Festival program Waiyirri This year’s St Kilda Film Festival is teeming with thought-provoking, visually stimulating filmmaking. St Kilda Film Festival is Australia’s longest-running short film festival. 2021 is the festival’s 38th year of operations and sees a return to theatres after a last-minute switch to a digital event for 2020. SKFF is presented and produced by the City of Port Phillip, and this year’s stac...

Returning to Melbourne, Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders affirmed ‘Hurtsville’ as a modern classic Jack Ladder & the Dreamlanders In celebration of Hurtsville’s tenth anniversary, Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders delivered a triumphant display of writerly rock music at Melbourne’s Forum. Released in 2011, Hurtsville was a turning point in Jack Ladder’s career. The Sydney artist’s third LP was the recorded document of a stylistic shift that began when La...

A huge festival is going down at the Abbotsford Convent this weekend Makepesi We give you the full rundown of The Boite Singers’ Festival. Victoria’s iconic multicultural music organisation The Boite has been providing a platform for artists from diverse cultural backgrounds for the last 42 years. The organisation grew out of a concert held in The Rocks, Sydney in January 1978. The following year, The Boite established headquarters in Melbourne, where its ope...

Featuring new releases from Gwen Stefani, Tkay Maidza and Luke Steele’s new project, H3000. After an extended period of hibernation, our singles column returns giving you the best and worst new tracks from the last fortnight. We’ve split the column up into four categories to give you something more to sink your teeth into, and […]

Review: Blake Everett and Oliver Coleman defy the odds in ‘Dig Their Own Graves’ Words by August Billy Oliver Coleman’s 2019 Fringe Festival show, Poolside, was a revelation, introducing the young Melbourne comedian as a gifted performer who could easily switch from elaborate sketches to tongue-in-cheek stand-up. Coleman also displayed an easy, offhand penchant for crowd work and wasn’t afraid to stir up awkward energy. All of these ingredients are transferred into Dig Their Own Grave...

Forbidden love and LGBTIQ+ activism intersect in Mark Salvestro’s riveting play, ‘The Will to Be’ Image by Sare Clarke Photography Words By August Billy The Will to Be reveals the legacy of systemic homophobia. The 1960s is typically romanticised as a time of personal and cultural liberation driven by youth counterculture, feminism, civil rights and free love. But in much of the Western world, the laws regarding homosexuality were positively barbaric. Engla...