Where Liberation Lives: Feast Festival 2025 and the Next 50 Years of Queer Futures
In 2025, Feast Festival held liberation at the very heart of everything we did.
This year marked 50 years since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in South Australia, a milestone that reminds us just how hard-won our freedoms have been, and how much courage, resistance and community it took to get here. Liberation is not just something that happened in the past. It is something we continue to fight for, shape, and expand together.
Across this year’s festival, we saw liberation expressed through art, performance, music, storytelling, dance, protest, tenderness, joy and connection. It lived on our stages, in our venues, in our audiences, in our volunteers and in every shared moment between strangers who became community.
As we wrap up this powerful year, we want to say thank you. Thank you to every volunteer who showed up with heart, to every performer who trusted us with their work, to every venue, technician, producer, partner, sponsor and supporter who made space for queer stories, and to every audience member who filled those spaces with energy, curiosity and love. Liberation does not exist without people. And this year, you carried it with us.
To honour both this milestone and the future ahead, we asked some members of our community:
“What would you want the next 50 years of queer liberation to look like?”
Here’s what they shared:
Oscar Arrais
Mixed media artist and front cover artist of this year’s Feast Festival program.
On the future of liberation, Oscar shared:
“For me, the next half century of queer liberation is all about depth. I hope we move into a future where we are not only visible, but truly understood. I want a world where queer people feel safe in their bodies and free in their spirits. Where we are not negotiating our right to love or exist, but instead building communities that uplift, challenge and embrace every shade of who we are.
I see a future where liberation means access, safety, joy and purpose for every queer person, not just the loudest or the most celebrated. A future where our elders are honoured, our youth are protected and our trans and non binary siblings are held with compassion and strength. A future where care is a strategy, not an afterthought, and where we spend less time surviving and more time thriving.”
On the future of queer art and expression, he added:
“Queer art has always been a lighthouse, and I believe the next 50 years will only push that beam further. I see queer art breaking even more rules, mixing mediums, crossing borders and refusing to apologise. I hope it continues to carve out space for the stories that rarely get centre stage, especially the raw ones, the tender ones and the ones that help us breathe easier when the world feels heavy.
I want queer art to keep making room for conversations that matter. To build bridges between identity and imagination. To help our communities recognise themselves in colour, texture, poetry and protest. And I hope it keeps showing the world that creativity can be an act of liberation in itself.”
Oscar also shared these final reflections on his Feast 2025 experience:
“Feast 2025 has been a turning point for me. It cracked open new pathways, new friendships and a new sense of purpose in my practice. I am grateful for every person who walked into my exhibition, asked a question, shared a story or simply held space with curiosity. It reinforced why we do what we do. Community keeps the art alive.”
Steven Cheng
Chef of Don’s Table and former partner of Premier Don Dunstan
On their hopes for the next 50 years, Steven said:
“This year was the celebration of 50 years of decriminalisation of homosexuality and I believe the next 50 years of queer liberation will continue to do well with more broad support of the following organisations. I have been impressed with the ongoing work of the reinvigorated Don Dunstan Foundation, Feast Festival, Openly Gay MP’s Robert Simms and Ian Hunter and newly founded SA Chapter Pride in Law. I hope the younger queer community from Chinese communities get more involved in large-scale public pride parades, Art performances, books and films. I will continue to support an ongoing Don’sTable Feast event.”
He also shared:
“The last few years have seen me being more widely recognised as a life partner of Don Dunstan. I’m now invited to public events organised by Don Dunstan Foundation, HistoryTrust SA, City of Adelaide, Government House, Parliament House and most recently Feast and Pride in Law. I am proud to be married to Graham for the past six years. Twenty five years ago when Dunstan died, I couldn’t have imagined being now happily married. It is only possible after same sex marriages became legal on December 9, 2017.
When Feast invited me to be involved in the Don’s Table event this year I didn’t hesitate to share my story. The SA Life Magazine October 2025 feature article captured my thinking perfectly when I stated “Feast Festival celebrates 30 in a couple of years, so for us, it’s about making sure that we are so conscious about recognising the courage of people who have come before us, particularly in those very early, emerging and pioneering days of social reform. Dunstan took on such extraordinary social and political topics, including the decriminalisation of homosexuality 50 years ago. The question is who are the current political leaders would have the same courage for challenging reform, for identifying discrimination against LGBTIQ + minorities of all racial backgrounds.”
Alex Dunkin
Publisher of Buon-Cattivi Press, who launched ‘God is an Apricot’ as part of Feast Festival and publishes queer stories and voices.
On the next 50 years of queer liberation, Alex said:
“I’d love to see future queer liberation to have more voices and broadening sense of community. This would include ongoing and greater recognition that when one part of our community is under attack, that it’s an attack on all of us. We’ve even received the recent reminders to protect our trans community and stop any laws that seek to control or police others’ bodies.”
We also asked Alex:
“How do you see the future of queer stories, literature, and creative voices evolving, and what kind of narratives do you hope to see flourish in the years ahead?”
He shared:
“I can see the future of queer stories as expanding, becoming deeper and with multi-generational stories. The HIV/AIDS pandemic erased so many voices. Decades lost. Now we have a large aging queer population, we can see ourselves at every stage of life.
Language is forever evolving, changing, being reclaimed. People will be able to express themselves in words and statements that we don’t yet use. Every time someone else finds the words to identify and share themselves is another moment of freedom found. We might not always understand the new expressions and the best part is we don’t necessarily have to. Simply knowing someone is happy as themselves is all we need.
The queer community’s experiences are so varied and dotted with unique qualities that it will be difficult for those stories to be machine generated. With that I hope the queer community will exist as a centre of human creativity and advancement of artistic exploration while ensuring that we look cross-culturally within our community to expand our understanding of queer narratives.”
Karneydoll
Producer, performer and community builder. Karneydoll has been producing regional burlesque, circus and Drag shows since 2011. They are a winner of the SA Burlesque Community Awards, the 2023 and 2024 Far and Wide Award, the 2024 SA Burlesque Community Award, and their group Karneyproductions was nominated for the 2024 Pride Awards.
On their hopes for the next 50 years, Karneydoll said:
“I would love to see more regional shows produced with financial support from stakeholders in the form of grants and transport, ie a Feast bus from the city to rural and remote communities, regions or travel and accommodation vouchers, i’d also love to see Feast expand to a Mardi Gras in the Desert. Regional shows are different from city gigs. They are remote, isolated and often there is discrimination attached. As a producer there are high costs of town halls, performer transport, accommodation, wages, you also need to be on the ground doing intensive networking with local communities throughout the year to ensure a successful show without prejudice or discrimination to ensure performer safety, whilst raising community awareness around topics of body positivity, gender diversity and inclusion. My dream would be to see more ease of access for regional shows to shine!”
Penny McAuley
Penny is our Chairperson and an arts and culture leader with over 35 years of experience in festival and event management, local government, and advocacy. She has held senior roles at Australia’s leading cultural institutions, including the SALA Festival, Adelaide Festival Centre, and City of Adelaide, bringing expertise in both creative programming and inclusive, impactful event delivery.
What would you want the next 50 years of queer liberation to look like?
“There is a deep sense of responsibility that I have to being the current custodian of South Australia’s Feast Festival, both for today and the reality of a future I will never see. It takes an open heart, lived and learned experience to be courageous and step into an arena that demands time, energy and consistency to remain actively grounded in purpose.
In my 53 years, I have felt, seen and been a part of great change and reform reflected in the maturing and shifting of social and political landscapes for our LGBTQIA+ community.
How fortunate are we all, to live in a Country, that for all intents and purposes is making positive reform, where the rights and equality of all people is being recognised on both the principles of being human, in addition to being recognised for our contribution to this society that we share.
In the next 50 years of queer liberation, I want to feel and see our collective community shift from the fight of liberation, to the welcoming embrace of simply being. That our uniqueness, identity, creativity and love is recognised globally. That we as a community continue to influence our allies and each other, to lift those who still face great adversity, in this world, to one where true equality and freedom exist.”
What does a sustainable and inclusive future for queer arts and culture in South Australia look like to you?
“Culture and diversity should always have its unique place of celebration and standing within the experience of Arts and Culture. Providing a pathway for storytelling, through the diversity of artforms, is important to continue to reach audiences in a way that informs, connects and brings awareness and celebration to our history, aspiration and joy for the future.
Queer arts and culture is remarkable, it is dynamic, bold, thought provoking, colour, movement and authentic in a way that is unique. The motivation to create queer art comes from a place of deep connectedness to self discovery and vulnerability. Audiences feel this. Queer arts and culture is impactful in ways that people can connect with, either through their own experiences or that of those they care for and love.”
What lessons from your career do you think are most important for emerging queer leaders today?
“Be patient, be kind and be very clear on the values and principles that guide you as a person, these are not mutually exclusive to a professional career.
True leadership begins with leading yourself. You must deeply connect with your own sense of purpose in this life, to use that as a guiding light when opportunities, challenges and decisions present themselves to you.
Take full responsibility for your decisions, do not delegate that to other people and know how to light your own flame in a dark room.
Truly listen to people, build people’s confidence and capability if they are willing to actively participate in their development.
Recognise that leadership is not a title, it is an attitude, it is a way with people, to influence not exert outcomes.
And as a queer leader, with a community that at times can be fractured, it will be a collaborative nature that will enhance sustainability for our community today and for tomorrow.”
Carrying Liberation Forward
These reflections speak to so much of what liberation truly means: safety, access, creativity, care, connection, and the freedom to exist fully — wherever you are, however you live, and whoever you love. Our community holds many voices across generations, identities and lived experiences. We’ll be sharing more reflections in the months ahead.
As we close out Feast Festival 2025, we do so with deep gratitude and renewed purpose. The last 50 years have brought enormous change. The next 50 will ask even more of us, to listen wider, care deeper, create braver and build futures where no one is left behind.
Thank you for walking with us this year. Thank you for carrying liberation with us. We can’t wait to keep dreaming, and building, what comes next.
Talking to the Box Office...