By Bronwen Beechey
ADELAIDE — The second annual Feast Lesbian and Gay Cultural Festival got off to a fiery start on October 23 with an opening night party that featured a lively mix of highlights from performance, dance and music.
After its successful inaugural season last year, Feast has added a number of new events to the three weeks of culture, celebration, performance, pride and partying.
A highlight of the festival is Deborah Cheetham's White Baptist Abba Fan, which was acclaimed at its first appearance at the 1997 Festival of the Dreaming. It is an extraordinary story of a woman born to an Aboriginal mother, taken away at three weeks and raised by a family of white, middle-class Baptists.
Other plays include Homme Fatale: The Joey Stefano Story, which examines the rise and fall of a gay porn star, and local theatre company Zip Antics' adaptation of the lesbian comedy film Go Fish.
Exhibitions include 2 Too Two Spirit People, an exhibition of indigenous gay art, and photographer William Yang's Intimacies and Other Gay Images, in which he combines erotic photographs of men with scenes from gay and lesbian life in Sydney over the last 20 years. Yang will also give two talks illustrated with selected slides.
"Film Feast", is a two-week season of gay and lesbian film ranging from the powerful drama Bent to the feel-good comedy, It's in the Water.
"QueerDoc" is a weekend of documentaries, including China Dolls, It's Our ABC Too and Pride Divide, a controversial US examination of gender politics in the lesbian and gay movement.
Readings feature well-known writers including indigenous poet Lisa Bellear, Jennifer Spry (Orlando's Sleep), Tony Ayres, writer and director of China Dolls, and Graeme Aitken, author of Fifty Ways of Saying Fabulous, as well as emerging writers who will be featured at "Queer Cargo", a night of readings and spoken word performance at the Cargo Club.
Forums will discuss experiences of lesbian and gay high school students, media portrayals of lesbians and gays, and the effect of the rise of right-wing, racist policies on the lesbian and gay community.
Parties range from a masquerade ball to a pool party.
The festival finishes on November 15 with the Picnic in the Park, when Elder Park will host a range of events including community stalls, entertainment, sporting events and the annual dog show.
For more information, phone Feast on (08) 8231 2155 (day) or (08) 8362 3223 or 1800 182 233 (evenings and weekends).