The festival will have it all, from global headliners, award-winning cabaret and high-energy music club nights to a queer comedy gala, cutting-edge contemporary dance and First Nations art.
From Big Freedia to Sophie Ellis-Bextor, John 'Jammin' Collins to Comedy Gala laughs, 'Queerstories' to living artworks, MELT 2022 is filled to the brim with experiences for all to witness and share.
Award-winning writer, director, and producer Daniel Evans (who is also Co-Founder of performance collective The Good Room. . . More on that later!) is the creative force behind MELT in 2022, curating the event to perfection.
Here, we chat with Daniel to get a feel for the expansive offering available as part of this year's MELT Festival.
First of all, for any newbies on the Brisbane scene… Describe MELT as a festival in general for us.
Okay. Here goes: MELT is an 18-day celebration of unabashed queerness where queer art, artists, allies, icons and ideas – drawn from throughout this city, around the country and across the globe – congregate and combust in an abrupt explosion of joy, volition, love and (be)longing.
Where does everything begin regarding curating such a huge event? Where do you start?!
In the wake of pandemic and flood, we almost didn’t start! Luckily the incredible Powerhouse team doubled-down and said: ‘let’s make this the most fiery MELT yet!’ I think we all knew that this year had to be highly celebratory and urgent – there’s a sort of powder-keg energy under this year’s MELT. After a couple of years of arm’s length programming, we’re able to be closer together in our artistic experiences. And that curatorial energy – of the whole team – has conceived a programme that features some truly amazing headliners (I mean Big Freedia. . . Sophie Ellis-Bextor. . . Jesswar. . . John Collins? Oof!) proudly alongside some truly amazing locals; many of whom are responsible for keeping queer art alive and kicking year-long in this city.
Was there one main thing/idea/theme you had in mind when putting this year’s festival together?
I actually went right back to basics and looked at the architecture and history of the Powerhouse. Not many people know that the Brisbane River used to flow beneath the building to cool the turbines. I sort of loved that idea of fire and water being so close together – that diametric-opposite, that push-pull, that tug-of-war feels somehow central to the queer art-making experience to me. . . And it also creates a new way of seeing why the festival is called MELT.
Top-Bottom, L-R: Benjamin Law, 'In Your Dreams', 'Cher', Shane Jenek (Courtney Act)
And what can audiences expect from the 2022 iteration?
In the spirit of MELT, we are hoping there is something loud and sweaty for those who need to turn-up to party-down in the Powerhouse but, by equal measure, there’s also space for those who want something quieter, smaller and more bruising. At its core you just want a moment of being witnessed – that could be as powerful inside a mass of people shaking and moving as one, or, sitting and listening to someone share their soul as part of 'Queerstories', or arm-in-arm at the Elderly Dance Club, or on the verandah in conversation with a stranger (hot), or pinning That One Night to the Chapel Of Love (also hot).
What’s been your favourite thing about playing the role of curator this year, and why?
The best thing about curating MELT is that there are such an incredible gamut of queer artists in our own backyard. Queensland artists are first rate – they are constantly reinvigorating their work, collaborating with new artists and – more often than not – playing at the razor tip of the cutting-edge of performance. The big dream is to, well, go bigger – to give a platform to artists of all creeds, stories we haven’t seen and experiences that have the capacity to transform (the kind of experiences you’ll still talk about years from now!).
What do you love most about MELT as a whole?
I love the experience. I love that this year you can throw shapes to Sophie Ellis, bow down to Big Freedia, reclaim space and story with Polytoxic’s ‘In Your Dreams’ but I also love that there is a chance to see the new generation (Backbone Youth Arts’ all-ages ‘Revel In The Queer’) alongside those who’ve blazed the trail (the LGBTQIA+ Elderly Dance Club by All The Queen’s Men). There’s the Queer Comedy Gala and the equally funny – and sometimes heartbreaking – institution 'Queerstories' … and more and more. And, maybe best of all, it’s all wrapped in the dreamy scapes and figures of First Nations visual artist Dylan Mooney who’s taking over the building’s walls and floors.
Dylan Mooney - Our Moment
As part of MELT, with The Good Room, you’ll be creating The Chapel Of Love. What’s this all about?
Ah yes! My creative partner in crime, Amy Ingram, and I are creating an effigy of sorts – a living, growing monument of love for everyone who comes to MELT to be part of. Imagine something between a Polling Booth and a Las Vegas 24 Hour Wedding Chapel. We’re taking names – printed neat or scrawled angrily – in the ultimate dedication of love, lust, rage and loss. It’s a visual manifestation of love, a temporary place for you to pin a little piece of your heart.
Why is a festival like MELT so important for Brisbane?
This is where you see some of Brisbane’s bestest, boldest, glitteriest and gut-punchiest queer artists in a united front. Often they exist in other programmes, other festivals, in small corners and sweaty bars, but this is the festival where they converge together and ‘take’ the Powerhouse. . . Quite literally.
How would you describe the 2022 offering in three words?
Heart-beating. Soul-lifting. Highly-combustible-goodness.
MELT Festival plays Brisbane Powerhouse from 10-27 November.
