17c起草社区

Canberra is getting ready for the third annual YES!Fest, which has quickly become one of Australia’s most exciting annual LGBTIQ events. YES!Fest creative director DANNY CORVINI outlines the event’s origins and plans for this year.

For many people, Canberra remains immortalised in their mind just as it was when they visited it on a school excursion many long years ago: i.e. pretty boring.

On November 15 2017, though, the city showed its true colours, and it was much more interesting than most people would expect.

That鈥檚 the date that we discovered that Australians had overwhelmingly voted in favour of marriage equality; and the little old ACT, which already had the only out gay leader in Australia in Andrew Barr, had just returned the highest 鈥榶es鈥� vote of any state or territory in this wide brown land.

It turns out that some 74 per cent of Canberrans voted in favour of marriage equality and the city鈥檚 old reputation as 鈥渂oring鈥� was now replaced as one of Australia鈥檚 most progressive, a quality many locals already knew about.

A somewhat modest party called the 鈥楳arriage Equality Results Night Party鈥� had already been organised for that night at Hopscotch Bar by a collective called Gaycrash, presumably for a few hundred community members to either celebrate or commiserate together, depending on the result.

But a fortnight earlier it had become abundantly clear that this was not going to be a mere garden party: the event鈥檚 Facebook RSVPs were ratcheting up into the thousands.

Realising that there was every likelihood that the organisers hadn鈥檛 even thought about DJs, I approached them about playing, and booking a few other performers, so that the opportunity to really make a night of it didn鈥檛 go to waste.

Simultaneously, Jacob White of the ACT division of the Australian Marriage Equality (AME) organisation had also joined forces with Gaycrash to relieve them of some of the other pressures of hosting what was snowballing into a mega event.

AME sprinkled their magic dust and Gaycrash鈥檚 humble 鈥楳arriage Equality Results Night Party鈥� suddenly became a bonafide street party, with Lonsdale Street outside being closed off to accommodate the huge crowds.

Some 6000 Canberrans came out that midweek eve to celebrate, dance and cry, and stayed well past 1am, the time that DJ Sveta and I played to. The next morning, the party was declared by the city鈥檚 daily newspaper 鈥渢he first spontaneous thing to ever happen in Canberra!鈥�

It wasn鈥檛 all partying, of course: there were highly emotional and rousing speeches given by the champions of the marriage equality cause; most notably Penny Wong, giving a speech that has now been etched into queer Canberrans collective consciousness. We all know that this legal change didn鈥檛 come easily and Penny鈥檚 face showed it every step of the way.

For me, it was the night that Canberra changed forever. This was the city that I鈥檇 escaped for Oxford Street upon turning 18, a place where I could finally 鈥渂e myself鈥�. On that night, Canberra finally became my hometown, a city I was immensely proud of.

Naturally, after all of that, not doing it all again in 2018 was not an option!

The first line of order for the second edition was a name change: we re-branded the event 鈥榊ES!Fest鈥� and upgraded it into a legitimate festival with DJs, drag performers, comedians, beat poets and food trucks.

We extended the the street closure all the way to the iconic Rainbow Roundabout that鈥檚 further along Lonsdale Street鈥攁 particularly 鈥楥anberra鈥� landmark and a focal point for the local LGBTIQ community鈥攁nd threw an experimental day party there to see if we could also appeal to rainbow families and queer youth, who would have to miss the night party.

The sight of 14-year-old Jye Gray jumping up on stage and vogueing certainly confirmed that we could. A few days later, Jye鈥檚 mother Paula wrote to us to say that she had never seen him so happy as on that day. Here was the new face of Canberra: a place queer kids are comfortable in their own skin, with extremely supportive parents.

For the adults, we got the chance to continue partying well into the night back down the other end of Lonsdale Street at the Hopscotch stage. The cream of Canberra鈥檚 drag performers were joined by indigenous drag queens Felicia Foxx and Josie Baker from Sydney and our own Miss First Nation, Mad B, among many other performers.

By about 3am, things wrapped up. It was bloody exhausting. Somehow, in the space of just a year, we鈥檇 managed to become a 12-hour, two-stage festival!

The pleasure of seeing all of the performers, the connections made and the passion and pride of the people living in a city growing up before our very eyes made every moment worth it for our small team of organisers and volunteers.

And here we are on the second anniversary of marriage equality planning to do it all again 鈥� with even more colours in our rainbow this time!

YES!Fest 2019 will see things evolve just that little bit further still. The showpiece of this year鈥檚 day stage will be the Rainbow Runway competition鈥攐ur first鈥攚hich will be hosted by Felicia Foxx and judged by our guests Electric Fields.听

The contestants will get just one minute on the roundabout to win over the audience with their fabulousness, whether it鈥檚 with a sassy walk or backflips and death drops or anything else that they can channel up in that moment.

There will be performances by Sydney鈥檚 House of Luna and Canberra鈥檚 House of Gray (yes, our 14 year old from 2018 has formed his own house!) and a vogue-house set by DJ Tuxido Masc.

The two night stages will have distinctly different offerings.

Hopscotch will be transformed into 鈥楶opscotch鈥� and feature nothing but pop and retro music with local drag king hosts Zapp Backagain and Guy Alias, and only the poppiest of performances.

The Electric Pride stage will make its debut in the middle of Lonsdale Street and will be a much more avant-garde, wild, adult and sophisticated affair. Hosted by Sheba Williams, this stage will feature performances by the likes of The Huxleys, Etcetera Etcetera, Charlie Chapstik and Sarah Moany, Brisbane鈥檚 Ellen Reed, and DJs playing solid house and techno.

We hope to see you there!

YES!Fest听will run from 3pm until late, Saturday 16 November on Lonsdale St, Braddon, ACT. Free entry. YES!Fest is part of the SpringOUT Pride Festival, which runs from Saturday 2 November to Sunday 24 November. Visit for more information.听

Danny Corvini (DJ Raydar) is the Creative Director of YES!Fest and is a former 17c起草社区 columnist.

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