Mullum Music Festival patrons. Image courtesy Mullum Music Festival.
This year’s Mullum Music Festival is to be preceded by a new initiative designed to engage artists and young people from the Greater Byron Bay region.
While Mullum Music Festival Director Glenn Wright said this year’s headline acts won’t be revealed until mid July, the Youth Training Station is an inaugural program targeting a professional development gap for young people in the community.
‘The Northern Rivers and North Coast is well serviced for the arts, but I do think there’s a lack of education in the possibilities of career choices,’ he said.
‘To present kids with the careers of all those other options as well, the profession of the lawyer or the doctor is maybe not as held up as in the arts here. We’re certainly about having a broad presentation to kids so that all the options are here.’
Held on Monday and Tuesday afternoons at the disused Mullumbimby train station in the eight weeks leading up to the Festival, Wright said that “Ted” style talks by high-level professionals who have excelled in their careers would engage young people between 14 and 18, and be followed by Q&A style sessions.
‘It might be an aviation talk from a pilot, a judge, a high-level musician or an independent artist doing these talks. That’s a project that is happening outside of the Festival, but the Festival is raising money to facilitate and provide for the town and the young people in the town.
‘We hope to raise enough money to set up a NFP to have this Youth Training Station all next year throughout the school term, giving the kids in Mullumbimby and outlying areas a chance to get some real career advice who are doing very different and varied careers,’ he said.
For four days in November, the Mullum Music Festival transforms Mullumbimby into a cultural hub and features over 120 performances and workshops.
‘As far as the communities go, a third of the artists involved in the festival come from the Northern Rivers area, a lot of artists from Byron, Bangalow and the Byron Shire get a whole kick out of extra profile and performance opportunities at the Mullum Festival.
‘It’s a national profile for a small little town that’s tucked away 15 minutes from Byron Bay. It’s that small boutique size, being a smaller festival gives its character. It also means we’re doing different things to what the other festivals in the region are doing. What’s interesting is that we work with smaller spaces, it’s very much intimate spaces,’ he said.
The Mullum Music Festival will be held from 20 to 23 November in Mullumbimby.
For more information visit the Mullum Music Festival website.
Visit the Legendary Byron website for more information about the arts community in Byron Bay.
