Earopund Festival

Overview

Newtown's getting a brilliant new festival, giving the spotlight to female and transgender musicians. Named Earopund, this new event's epic program includes not only a slew of live performances, but also spoken word, talk and light projections.

At Part One, happening from 7.30pm on Saturday, January 23 at Newtown Social Club, there'll be tunes from Astrix Little, Chunyin (Rainbow Chan), Imperial Broads, Fabels and Bree van Reyk (Synergy Percussion, founder of Girl's School of Rock); light projections by JAX (Slinky & Snudis); and spoken word by Sara Saleh and Justina Ray. Part Two, taking place from 2pm on Saturday 30 January at Alpha Gallery (226 Union Street, Erskineville), will feature no fewer than thirteen performers, plus projections by VJ Amla.

The event is the brainchild of musician Astrid Zeman, who's received a sizeable dollop of triple j love for her tracks 'Counting Sheep' and 'Imagination'.  She came up with the concept after repeatedly attending gigs where women were underrepresented.

“I’ll sometimes see a few bands in a row, maybe 15 musicians, and there won’t be a single woman on stage. Male bands will sometimes be singing about how hot a chick is, or how they enjoy relaxing with their girlfriends on the weekend, or about doing guy stuff with their mates … and I just find it hard to relate to this material. Seeing performances that are repeatedly male-dominated makes me feel frustrated and disempowered," she told Music Australia. "We want to reverse the trend, promoting female and LGBTQIA+ musicians in the scene and raising awareness of gender equality.”