A mini festival celebrating queer excellence with a stacked line up of musicians and performers - DIVERGE - is set to explode at Earp Distilling Co this Sunday 30th October.
Presented by newly established arts organisation Queer and Now to close out the This is Not Art Festival, and supported by the City of Newcastle via a Community Support Grant - DIVERGE features a line up of local musicians, performers and DJ’s, some of which include live sets by Djanaba, Meer and Rachel Maria Cox, and a debut performance in the Hunter by fantastic Eora, Sydney based, House Of Slé.
This welcoming event for queer friends and allies is intended to celebrate queer excellence in the performing arts, including drag, music, dance, experimental and everything in between.
“DIVERGE celebrates queer excellence and these types of events are invaluable to our community.’ said Jasmine Fletcher, Queer and Now Director.
“They increase queer representation, inclusion and provide safer spaces for embracing diversity and fostering social connections. Representation is necessary for the well-being and professional development of our queer community, the more we showcase queer arts in our local area the more sexual and gender diverse folk can see themselves and be themselves, if you can’t see it you can’t be it.”
Funding from the City of Newcastle has enabled Queer and Now to present DIVERGE as part of the iconic This is Not Art Festival (TiNA) via a targeted auspice partnership with This is Not Art.
The targeted auspice partnership program is a new service developed by This is Not Art, and Queer and Now is their inaugural partner.
“Funding provided by the City of Newcastle means this great event gets to take place and demonstrates how a mature organisation like TiNA can auspice with emerging partners to apply for grants from multiple sources and bring new events to Newcastle’ said Cr Carol Duncan.
‘The city’s creative scene is simply exploding right now, helping early career arts workers access grants and run their own projects makes huge sense to Newcastle’.
The iconic TiNA Festival, which was established in 1997, has always focused on emerging practice, and makes TiNA a recognised and well-respected platform for ‘first big break’ opportunities across Australia.
Queer and Now are auspiced by This is Not Art
Diverge is proudly supported by the City of Newcastle.