2023 has been a year of festivals in Australia. That’s a fact.

In July, Splendour In The Grass (SITG) made up for the disastrous event from last year. At the beginning of October, Aboriginal rapper Briggs put on a one-day music celebration in favour of the “yes” vote in the “Voice to Parliament” referendum. And Sydney hosted the first-ever overseas edition of SXSW later that month.

But something was still missing on the festival map in the Land Down Under – an event dedicated to trans and non-binary voices. Until the announcement about the TRANSGENRE Festival finally filled that void.

PART 172 OF “AM I EVER GONNA SEE YOUR FACE AGAIN?” A RANDOM COLLECTION OF UNKNOWINGLY OBVIOUS FACTS ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN MUSIC SCENE

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Let me start with an unpopular statement. I love festivals. Who doesn’t?! But in all fairness, their line-ups tend to be predictable. Usually, they’re packed with the names of international mega stars, who are frequently straight, white men representing mainstream music genres.

And while music should primarily be about… well, music, this lack of representation of other groups forming the industry has been called out many times.

Some of those pleas have even been actioned. Recently, promoters have been trying to pay more attention to booking women and making them headliners, for example. There’s even an all-female festival in Australia called Wildflower.

But trans and non-binary artists have never had a dedicated event before. Thankfully, two people decided to change that. They are music journalist Ellie Robinson and FVNERAL’s vocalist and guitarist, Tim Blunt.

After pointing out the lack of diversity in festival line-ups in Australia numerous times, the pair took matters into their own hands. Instead of continuing to talk about it, they finally turned the “shut up and do your own festival” response they’ve been getting from promoters into a tangible result.

Their inaugural TRANSGENRE Festival is a one-day event happening in Sydney just a week before Christmas. It’s headlined by Cry Club – a colourful (literally and metaphorically) pop-punk duo from Melbourne. And knowing the group’s sound and aesthetics, I’m sure they’ll deliver a pretty gay show (pun intended).

But that’s not all. There are 11 other outfits on the festival bill representing the organisers’ wish to showcase exceptional talent from the trans- and non-binary community.

“We need to be visible, defiant and thriving – and at the core of that is positive representation in all corners of society. Our aim with TRANSGENRE is to offer a bit of that representation to the Australian live music scene, showing that trans and non-binary voices are among some of the strongest and most incisive in the country,” they explained.

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It is a substantiated claim. Just think about it. How many Australian trans and non-binary artists are on your playlist right now? Looking at TRANSGENRE’s line-up, I should also adjust my music radar to include new acts representing that community.

Now, you might think this is an event exclusively reserved for trans- and non-binary music fans. On the contrary, it’s open to everyone. Because the organisers also “(…) hope this festival encourages people (cis, trans and everyone in-between) to pay closer attention to the wealth of gender diversity that exists in the Australian music industry, and be louder in supporting it.”

As I’m typing this, five days before the event, tickets for the festival are still available on the Humanitix website. (And on that note – kudos to the organisers for choosing this particular platform to handle ticketing – Humanitix is a not-for-profit that donates all profits from booking fees to children’s charities.)

So if you’re still after a cool and meaningful Chrissy gift for a friend who loves live music, why not consider a ticket to TRANSGENRE?

Hopefully, this inaugural date will turn into a recurring music event on the festival map of Australia as well

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