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EastLink sponsors South Side Festival (Frankston 5-14 May)
EastLink is the Festival Partner for South Side Festival.
South Side Festival is
innovative
thought-provoking
immersive
Over ten days, the South Side Festival, 5-14 May, will present a range of thought provoking performances, raucous comedy, dazzling installations, striking visual arts and fun for the whole family.
The 2023 South Side Festival will delight, challenge and entertain.
Take a deep dive into underground immersive light installations, powerful First Nations dance, 10 minute dance parties, torch lit guided street art tours and so MUCH MORE!
10 days, over 60 artists, over 30 events and experiences - a journey that will awaken your senses. You'll be surprised by what you will find south side, join us.
Check out the festival highlights below, or visit the South Side Festival website.
Jenny Zhe Chang: Light With Hope - Unity
Fri 5 May to Sun 14 May
Frankston Arts Centre theatre foyer
Light with Hope – Unity is a site-specific installation of 77 symbolic lanterns reflecting 77 cultural and ethnic groups living in the City of Frankston.
LuXvr: Electric Garden
Fri 5 May to Sun 14 May
Various locations in Frankston
It’s time to get on your phone while you’re out and about in Frankston. Melbourne Digital Artist LuXvr presents the Electric Garden exclusive for the Southside festival. This free event invites you to experience Frankston’s public spaces where art meets technology in the Metaverse.
Mandylights: PLEXUS
Fri 5 May to Sun 14 May
Frankston Arts Centre Carpark L1. Entry via arts centre foyer.
Enter PLEXUS: an underground expanse of hundreds of colour changing panels and endless rows of lights. PLEXUS is an immersive, all-encompassing digital monolith that completely envelops guests in an ever changing light and audio experience.
All ages. Children under 10 must be accompanied by an adult.
Shaun Tan: The Rules of Summer
Fri 5 May to Sun 14 May
Frankston Arts Centre: Curved Wall and Atrium Galleries
The Rules of Summer is an exhibition from Australian artist, writer and film maker Shaun Tan, featuring original paintings made for the picture book of the same title. The exhibition explores the friendship of two young boys as it is challenged by difficult and irrational situations, each one a metaphor for familiar childhood experiences.
Skunk Control: A Persistent Presumption
Fri 5 May to Sun 14 May
Frankston Arts Centre Cube 37 Glass Box and Gallery
Three large scale linked light works by Skunk Control will take over Cube 37 creating an interactive installation and experience that explores light and darkness, the interface between them and a possible deviation from their dynamic equilibrium.
Karul Projects: SILENCE
Fri 5 May 7:30pm
Frankston Arts Centre theatre foyer
SILENCE is a powerful First Nations dance performance, featuring seven performers on a stage slowly surrounded with dirt, representing the call for Land Back. Dynamic live percussion drives the dancers’ exploration of past, present, alternate realities and dreamscapes of the milky way and Murun, the emu in the sky.
Recommended for ages 12+.
Patch Theatre: Sea of Light
Sat 6 May to Sun 14 May
Frankston Arts Centre Cube 37 Studios
Paint a voyage in Light…
Embark on a journey of light and imagination in the illuminating interactive installation Sea of Light. With a UV torch as your paintbrush, paint and stencil your own voyage. Steer ships that leave glowing paths of light in their wake as you sail them across the sea floor. A unique adventure for the whole family.
Scratch Arts: Liminal Treats
Sat 6 May 1pm
Frankston Arts Centre Carpark L1. Entry via arts centre foyer.
From beginning to end you’ll be treated as a first-class future-viewing tourist as we open rifts in time and space to view creatures from thousands of years into the future. Step into the liminal with us to delight in fresh fruit, baked goods and gooey pleasures alongside performances from Melbourne's most unique surrealist performance artists.
All ages, PG.
Melbourne International Comedy Festival: Roadshow 2023
Sun 7 May 7:30pm
Frankston Arts Centre
Australia’s biggest and best comedy festival is hitting the road for a huge 25th year! Featuring the best and brightest of the 2023 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, right here in Frankston to coincide with the 2023 South Side Festival!
Recommended for ages 15+.
Frankston City Libraries: FrankTALKs After Dark
Mon 8 May to Thu 11 May
Frankston Library
Off the back of a successful Writers Panel at last year’s South Side Festival, Frankston City Libraries is excited to be hosting ‘FrankTALKs After Dark’ at Frankston City Library. We will be joined by authors from various genres to discuss thoughts, beliefs and values through a writer’s lens.
Joseph O Farrell (JOF): 10 Minute Dance Parties
Thu 11 May 6pm to 8pm
Frankston Library forecourt
Welcome to the best dance party of your life. Your time starts…NOW!
JOF welcomes you to 10-Minute Dance Parties – an accessible artwork that collaborates with local young people to provide audiences with the best 10 minutes of their lives!
An ALL-AGES event that asks you to have as much fun as you can with one catch: you only have 10 minutes to dance. And dance you will!
10 Minute Dance Parties Closing Party!
Sun 14 May 3pm to 5pm
Frankston Arts Centre Carpark L1. Entry via arts centre foyer.
Bring your best dance moves, high kicks and shake it off with JOF and a host of young DJ’s from 10 MINUTE DANCE PARTIES who will bring an extended party for the closing night of South Side Festival.
Each young DJ will bring their newly acquired DJ skills to the incredible Plexus! Let’s Go!
All ages. Children under 10 must be accompanied by an adult.
Fresh Entertainment: Makeshift Mayhem
Fri 12 May 6pm to 10pm
Singing Bird Studio (3/3 New St, Frankston)
Get your deadly dose of mayhem in the mosh pit, May 12! Fresh Entertainment is bringing an epic line-up of heavy metal bands from all around Melbourne to Singing Bird Studios. Come along to Makeshift Mayhem for a night of live music jam packed with head bangers, promising you another hardcore Frankston experience you won’t forget.
All ages. Patrons under 14 must be accompanied by an adult.
Mama Alto: That Song Changed My Life
Fri 12 May 7:30pm
Frankston Arts Centre
“That Song Changed My Life” is a new work from cabaret artiste Mama Alto, collaborating with local community members to explore a time in their lives when music was important: a song that changed their life.
Mama and her musicians will reinterpret those songs through the lens of those stories to create a moving, cathartic and triumphant performance event, unique and unrepeatable.
Big Bao: MELD
Sat 13 May 6:30pm to 9pm
Frankston Arts Centre Carpark L1. Entry via arts centre foyer.
Big Bao presents: MELD—melding music and movement in an immersive live setting. Performing a live set of his original works, Yeo's music spans many relatable themes—the complexities of relationships and conflict from the perspective of a person of colour struggling to find a place to belong.
Recommended for ages 14+.
MILKE: Garry Starr Performs Everything
Sat 13 May 7:30pm
Frankston Arts Centre
Garry Starr is the alter-ego of Australian/British actor and comedian Damien Warren-Smith. Having struggled for much of his life to stick at anything, Damien discovered there was much hilarity to be found in attempting to do everything at once for the sake of art. Thus, Garry Starr Performs Everything was born.
Garry Starr takes the audience through every performance style he can think of, hoping to reignite the passion for the performing arts: Shakespeare, Pinter Butoh, Noh, Ballet, Burlesque, and Circus, to name a few.
Recommended for ages 16+.
