FESTIVAL: UNDER THE BLUE MOON
BY MICHELLE KEENAN
The Under the Blue Moon Festival is a dark alternative festival that is in its fifth year. Held in Sydney’s inner-west, it features a gothic mass, fashion, art and music’
The venue for the gothic mass is St Luke’s Enmore, an Anglo-Catholic church which encourages inter-faith dialogue. Reverend Gwilym Henry-Edwards is the rector at St Luke’s Enmore, and enjoys being part of the festival.
‘St Luke’s is part of the community, and it is part of the task of the church to be active in the community. So why not be involved” he says, ‘at St Luke’s, we want people to understand that the love of God extends to everyone, and to show unconditional love regardless of race, background, and sexual orientation, for example. We want people to share in the love and concern of God for them.’
The Gothic Mass will be held at St Luke’s Enmore at 7pm on October 1, with a Swap and Sell Gothique Market at 8pm.
For Liz Evanov, the producer of the festival’s Lunamorph Alternative Fashion Show (which will be held at The Factory on October 3), fashion is her passion. ‘I am not gothic but I just love the people and the fashion and the other events that I have attended’ I love all the designers and they all have something very unique which will make Lunamorph really spectacular this year. I love corsets and some of the fetish PVC and rubber outfits are great.’
Fabulous Sebastian is the curator of the festival’s art show, Art is Gaff! The idea behind it developed out of Sebastian’s desire to make art more accessible. ‘I wanted to bring the art closer to the people, and place it in a retail context. Most people don’t go to art galleries even though they like art. People will buy a dodgy print or reproduced poster when there is plenty of affordable, original art out there, because they don’t come in to contact with it. I wanted to expose people to more art, and more options for decorating their homes.’
Sebastian says he’s seen a growth in gothic-inspired art. ‘There have always been a lot of gothic-inspired artists, even if no one saw them, but they are increasing. The internet has certainly helped to propagate the genre. It gives them an easy outlet to display their work, but nothing beats seeing it in person.’
The Under the Blue Moon Festival will also showcase local and international musicians on October 5 at the Gaelic Theatre. Ken Evans does vocals, programming and guitar for the Brisbane ‘synthpop’ band, Tycho Brahe. ‘Our music is about a lot of things,’ he says, ‘some songs have a message, some are dark, some are reflective, others are just about some cool synth sounds ‘ regardless of what the music is about, it’s all about getting people up off their arses and getting them dancing – we certainly don’t want to come all the way to Sydney and have people sit on the floor and watch us!’
‘Any independent festival is hugely important in any city, regardless of genre or subculture – this is the alternative to the FM fodder and commercial doof, so people should support this type of festival, it helps maintain and build the scene.’
Adrian Hates is the lead singer of Diary of Dreams, a German Goth band who have been around since 1989 and will be performing for their first time in Australia. ‘Seeing a country we have never been to and performing for a new audience is as exciting as it can possibly get. Besides, the bands we perform with are very good friends of ours so the whole event sounds very fun and promising!’ he says.
The Under the Blue Moon Festival runs from September 27 to October 6. For more information see underthebluemoon.org.au
