Sunday June 27th Workers Club 3-9pm
DIE YUPPIE, DIE! concert & festy fashion jam ($4/$8)
Come along & create your own shabby chic clothes using bits of the original Tote carpet (gloves supplied!) while checking out hirsute pole dancer Agent Cleave & listening to some of the best bands in Melbs including Cuba Is Japan, Grizzly Jim Laurie, J. Hawke, Alex Jarvis and Zero Miles an Hour. Prizes for grossest garments crafted.
Karl Fitzgerald will be talking about the economic issues of gentrification at 7.30pm.
In recent years, the ‘hoods we grew up in have lost many of their major cultural meeting spots for those of us light on dosh: The Punters Club, Lentil as Anything, The Tote… and now they’re losing us, the artists, musos, creative types and other locals driven out by rising rents.
We don’t want to give up our homes without a fight and are banding together with Radical Craft group Craft Cartel to organise this mini-festival celebrating our communities and exploring ways of saving them. As was shown in our latest I Wanna Live Here report, there are a large amount of vacant properties in our favourite ‘hoods, plenty of room for us all. If these were released onto the market the housing in these areas would also become more affordable.
Highlights of the festival include:
- Free sticky Tote carpet relics for all attendees
- A ball gown crafted from Tote carpet sourced from DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF THE DUNNIES by fashion designer Kathryn Jamieson (Berlin/Melb) and soundscaped by compser David Shea (NY/Melb)
- Economics for Activists presentation by Earthsharing’s Karl Fitzgerald
- Lagerphone making workshop
- Hirsute pole dancer Agent Cleave
- Fetid Fashion Jam
- Survival tips from Green Renters
- Musos Cuba is Japan, Grizzly Jim Lawrie, J Hawke, Alex Jarvis, DJ Chestwig, Zero Miles an Hour and more
- Doormats fashioned from the original Tote carpet and branded, ciggie style, with the Tote logo. Each mat comes with a certificate of authenticity detailing where in the pub it came from (stage, mosh pit, door bitch etc). Profits to Fitzroy’s homeless, specifically St. Mary’s House of Welcome craft room.
Lady crew rip up Tote carpet. (Image Louise Francis) Ann Maher, Aubrey Rhodes, Liana Lucca-Pope, Rahne Widarsito.
Festival details are:
Sunday June 13th – Birmy, cnr Smith & Johnston 3-8pm
WORKSHOP & Gentrification reversal plotting session(by donation)
BBQ, festiness, lagerphone making workshop, FREE sticky Tote carpet relics for all attendees, DJ Chestwig, Green Renters stand, I Wanna Live Here Film Comp winner screening, unveiling of a magnificent ball gown crafted from Tote carpet sourced from DIRECTLY INFRONT OF THE DUNNIES by fashionista Kathryn Jamieson & soundscaped by composer David Shea, Economics for Activists presentation from Earthsharing’s Karl Fitzgerald.
June 13th – 27th Workers Club windows, cnr Brunnas & Gertrude
EXHIBITION:
Kathryn Jamieson’s divine Tote gown & other arty Tote artifacts
Sunday June 27th Workers Club 3-9pm
DIE YUPPIE, DIE! concert & festy fashion jam ($4/$8)
Come along & create your own shabby chic clothes using bits of the original Tote carpet (gloves supplied!) while checking out hirsute pole dancer Agent Cleave & listening to some of the best bands in Melbs including Cuba Is Japan, Grizzly Jim Laurie, J. Hawke, Alex Jarvis and Zero Miles an Hour. Prizes for grossest garments crafted.
7 Comments on “Anti-Gentrification Festival – This Sunday!”
Fantastic idea!
Artists create a Rainbow, and greedy investors and councils steal the pot of gold at the end, through land spike values due to funky hip gentrification.
There is a bit more to gentrification than just artist’s making areas trendy. State government policies from the 1970s onwards were used to stimulate investment in devalued inner real estate as an way of creating economic growth in the face of a dwindling manufacturing sector. Artists may have played a role in initially raising rents in largely immigrant areas like Carlton, but it’s been a minor one compared to that of speculators echoing the global trend of pumping up real estate bubbles using formerly cheap inner city and watrefront properties.
This weekend looks like it will be fun. Hopefully something will come out of it involving ongoing ideas around how we bring rents down and get some security for all low income people.
Yes, as you say, artists, like everyone else, have their place within the process which is dictated by Government policy rather than actually being the prime cause of it. Arty types should be pleased not to be blamed for everything for once!
The festival (which is actually two events linked by an exhibition over two weeks) will indeed be fun and I would say that already, before it’s even begun, it has been effective in generating wide-spread discussion about the issue and introducing words such as ‘speculator’ into the lexicon of those who would usually shy away from such concepts.
Here’s hoping the ideas keep building!
You should see what this megalomaniac government has got in store for Footscray. Unbridled development in one of Melbourne’s significant heritage areas. A 25 storey skyscraper where the Footscray market is now and a 20 storey one next door and ……
‘We prefer our junkies to yuppies’
hi sylvie,
the extra housing should keep a lid on house prices but alas no….our present system allows the developer to drip feed the market so that prices stay high. Any time we talk about the economic prodder – land tax – the 14 think tanks in melb (representing the property overlords) jump up and down and whinge like there’s no tomorrow. they are the ones enforcing gentrification.
thanks to all for a great event!