Series shares young talent from a home stage

A FREE online music festival for, and by, Ballarat’s young people will be “fully sick” by name and nature.

City of Ballarat’s youth Sonika committee is coordinating an ongoing Fully Sick Fest, showcasing and supporting up-and-coming talent, while entertaining an isolated home audience every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 4.30pm.

Boosting many who’ve recently lost performance opportunities, the festival will drop content at least three times a week via Facebook live or watch parties. It will present short gigs, a curated open mic segment of submitted video performances, workshops and committee video blogs.

Volunteer, Corey Uren said his committee is working to ensure young people have meaningful projects, and are flexing their creative muscles.

“Who knows how long we’re not going to be having events for? So we’re paying some young artists to produce this content online for us, do what they love, and it helps them in this time of hardship,” he said.

“We’re trying to keep our community engaged and connected so they’re not feeling lonely. We can still do things together online, so it’s a good distraction and a way of keeping people informed.”

Sarah Barclay, a fellow volunteer, said workshops will include tips for beginners to start making tunes.

“I filmed a couple of tutorials the other week on music production, looking at using things you might already have, like a phone or iPad, its software and free Apple and Android apps,” she said.

“It’s a cool hobby to do at home. I use broken things to create music sometimes. A broken speaker from an op-shop might be 50 cents, but I’ll get it because it could make a sound that I can’t make digitally.”

Youth Services coordinator at the City of Ballarat, Katja Fiedler remembers a 2019 Swinburne University study, which found a “concerning” one in three young people felt lonely.

Now with the impacts of COVID-19, her team is launching Fully Sick Fest to mindfully combat any potential exacerbation of mental health statistics.

“Young people are restricted, not being able to meet with friends, to be active, to do things together… They’re limited,” she said.

“That’s coupled with being scared of what the future holds, anxieties, uncertainties around employment, health and wellbeing, fitness…

“With regular activities dropping off, and everything online, any connections are so vital.”

If you’d like to catch the latest festival news, or are interested in being a part of its musical open mic component, head to facebook.com/freezasonika. The streaming bill includes musical duo, Lotus Eyes.

The 30-strong Sonika committee is one of many State government funded FReeZA groups, encouraging 12 to 25 year olds to coordinate and manage community events for young people, free of alcohol, drugs and smoking.