Image by Lady Drewniak //
Earlier this year, Paralympian and triple j presenter Dylan Alcott announced his first event, Ability Fest to be held at Coburg Velodrome in Melbourne.
Featuring the likes of Tkay Maidza, Made In Paris, Ivan Ooze and a very rare B2B DJ performance from Flight Facilities and Client Liaison, the lineup was an impressive showcase of some Australian festival favourites – with all artists donating their time (and 100% of the proceeds) towards the freshly-established Dylan Alcott Foundation, which helps Australian youths with disabilities via mentoring, grants and scholarships in study and sport.
Ability Fest went down last weekend, and drew 5000 punters to the event which ended up raising close to $200,000 for Alcott’s charity. He describes the event as “one of the best days of my life.”
“Nobody cared about their race, gender, sexual orientation, and most importantly, their disability. I had so many people with disabilities come up [to me] and it was the first time they’d ever been to a festival with their family and friends, in tears, saying thank you… I keep bloody tearing up thinking about it because it was one of the most special days I was involved in.”
The plan is to make Ability Fest an annual event, so expect to see it back, bigger and better in 2019!
