New Festival TRANSGENRE Celebrates Australian Transgender & Non-Binary Artists With Inaugural Line-up

The new music festival TRANSGENRE was born out of frustration and defiance. A response to those who always respond, “suck it up” and “Make your own festival” when punters argue for more diverse festival line-ups, TRANSGENRE is a celebration of transgender and non-binary artists in the Australian music industry.

The inaugural event, hitting The Red Rattler Theatre in Sydney on Sunday, 17 December, is headlined by Melbourne’s “bubblegum punk” duo Cry Club.

Alongside the duo are Perth siblings Josh and Hazel Meyer, aka Those Who Dream; Adelaide pop-punk luminary Nonnie (with frontwoman Lilly Peterson delivering a rare solo performance); Melbourne hyper-pop artist Wolfjay, and some of Sydney’s brightest up-and-coming talents.

Representing New South Wales are pop-rock gem Blake Williams, punk band Final Girls, hardcore hellions Cherish, hyper-pop dynamo KHAOS EMRLD, emo outfit FVNERAL, and experimental rocker enpriestess – as well as Newcastle-based post-hardcore favourites Two Knives, while alt-pop mastermind NOCTICA is coming for the celebrations from Tamworth.

Tickets to the first-ever TRANSGENRE Festival are on sale now.

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Transgenre is an all-ages event that promises to be clash-free. The festival was created by Co-Directors Ellie Robinson and Tim Blunt in partnership with BLUNT, Young Henrys and Cistem Error.

The Co-Directors said about the inaugural event in a statement, “It’s been a pretty wild year to be trans (to say the very least), and especially now, it’s so important to champion our community as loudly and proudly as possible. We need to be visible, defiant and thriving – and at the core of that is positive representation in all corners of society.

“Our aim with TRANSGENRE is to offer a bit of that representation to the Australian live music scene, showing that trans and non-binary voices are among some of the strongest and most incisive in the country.

“Personally, we hope this festival encourages people (cis, trans and everyone in-between) to pay closer attention to the wealth of gender diversity that exists in the Australian music industry, and be louder in supporting it. The show is obviously open for everyone to enjoy, but we’re so bloody keen to see a bunch of our fellow trans and gender-diverse people having an incredible day at the first-ever TRANSGENRE, enjoying some of the best live music in Australia, and celebrating their identities as excitedly as they want without having to worry about being judged for it.”