By Dongyun Kwon
Something is going to be popped up in Healesville to invigorate the town with a musical vibe.
Healesville Festival Incorporated is hosting a free gig series Something’s Popped Up in Healesville at the pop-up space behind the Memo Healesville on the last three Saturdays of November.
Healesville Festival Incorporated founder Rose Herring said Something’s Popped Up in Healesville is an introduction for the bigger festival Healesville Festival which the group is planning to put on in May next year over the Mother’s Day weekend.
“We’ve come together and thought it’d be nice to showcase some small little events with mostly local artists and some non-local artists,” she said.
“This gig series is an exciting opportunity to showcase the incredible talent of local musicians while encouraging community engagement and supporting our artisans and local businesses.”
The event will take place from 3pm on 16, 23 and 30 November, inviting different musicians each time.
Ms Herring said rap artist FemCee Kids and Little Yarra Steiner School Trio will perform on 16 November.
“On 23 November, Shauntai Sherree Abdul-Rahman will perform operatic music. Alongside her, we have FoxWytch, who just finished performing at the Renaissance Festival, she is a beautiful vocalist and guitarist, and she has a flautist who comes and performs with her,” she said.
“Then we have Claire Garvey and Sam Berry, Claire Garvey is a local Wurundjeri artist who sings some covers and some of her own music.
“On 30 November, Rhys Sund will perform lovely indie and light rock music. After Rhys, we’ve got Kofi Kunkpe Music who plays incredible African drumming, and students from his drumming school come and perform as well, we’ll finish up the day with folk music artist Lothlorien.”
Besides music performances, there will be face painting and sausage sizzle which are fundraisers for Healesville Festival.
The volunteer group was formed this year with a mission to create accessible and inclusive events which invigorate Healesville and foster connections among residents.
The group founder said she had noticed a high demand for a big festival from the community after the termination of the Healesville Music Festival last year which had been run for a long time.
“Having conversations with all the different community members, they remembered lots of different festivals that used to be in Healesville, so I asked if community members would like to come and meet me to have a conversation about what they would like to see in Healesville and whether or not anybody wanted to volunteer to help,” she said.
“I held two meetings back in May and June and lots of people turned up, I also did a survey to find out what people wanted, and we got lots of responses from people.
“They’d like to see a festival closer to town that has music but also includes other arts like dancing or visual arts with lots of different types of entertainment as well as being affordable for locals and encouraging tourist trade.”
