10 minutes with… Feast Festival chair Penny McAuley
Business Insight spoke with the new chair of Feast Festival, Penny McCauley, ahead of the LGBTQI+ arts festival’s November program.
What attracted you to Feast?
There is an enticing charm and raw beauty in enabling people to contribute and to take carriage of creative culture.
Feast is a platform that enables participation for everyone who identifies as members of our LGBTQIA+ community.
The administration and board of Feast are the privileged custodians of this pathway; this voice of contemporary society, as reflected in art, literature, drag, comedy and music to name a few mediums. It is our responsibility to ensure we have a solid foundation of care, compliance and professional standards that entices, retains and encourages individuals, organisations, funding bodies and philanthropy to join us for this annual celebration.
What do you hope to bring to the festival in your new role?
After 35 years of building a professional career on trust and delivering collaborative, sustainable and mutually beneficial results for individuals and organisations here and in Brisbane across the sectors of community services, arts, tourism and major events, I can assure you, I asked myself that too. Especially as I had stepped away from a corporate career for the past four years.
But it was very humbling to have someone I hold in the deepest of respect reach out to me to suggest I ‘take a look’ at the vacancy for the role.
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I will bring maturity, extensive experience, critical thought, a calm nature and a deep understanding of the constraints and opportunities for what is, in principle an open access festival, with key programmed elements and a true respect for the critical partnerships which contribute so much to enrich the programming of the festival.
This year marks 50 years since the decriminalisation of male homosexuality in SA – what is the importance of that milestone and how is Feast is celebrating that?
Feast 2025 is all about liberation. This is a celebration which starts with this year’s official program cover by artist Oscar Arrais and is represented throughout our extended festival which features more free events than ever.
As South Australians we should all be proud of this the 50th year of the decriminalisation of male homosexuality.
We have led the way in Australia on much social and political reform. In particular Don Dunstan, whose courage and capacity to bring people with him on a journey to educate and break barriers of stigma, shame and criminality just because of who you love. He led with such care and conviction, not only the times in which he lived, but paved the way for others to live openly and without fear of criminal penalty.
Today, as in the past, we still need our allies to stand with us, call out discrimination, hate and violence against our LGBTQIA+ community. We are your colleagues, neighbours, family and friends. We too want peace. To be able to live as part of a community, to come and gather in safety, to celebrate and contribute to society.
We will pay homage to Don this year with a special Erotic Feast, recreating a similar event held at Don’s Table 28 years ago at the inaugural Feast Festival. Limited to just 40 seats at The Kitchen at Sky City, this intimate event on November 5 will pair salacious story telling by Adelaide identities with food and matched wines. It’s one not to be missed!
The festival is heading to more regions than before this year – why is that important?
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American activist Marian Wright Edelman said, ‘You can’t be what you can’t see’. Participation in Feast, as either a registered artist, event or audience member shines the light on diversity and inclusion, in its truest form. It takes courage to participate; there is a vulnerability to being a creative, the risks can only be traded against the reward of believing in and backing yourself, and presenting work to an audience. And regional representation is critical to ensure a rich tapestry of diversity by building understanding and acceptance within the community through creative pursuit.
Isolation and remoteness are a layer of complexity that we don’t experience in the same way in the city. People need each other in the regions to face adversity at times of natural disaster and emergency. Feast Festival is a way to bring the community together, to celebrate, explore and influence attitudes and beliefs for a period of celebration and we thank SA Power Networks for their generous support of our regional artist grants.
Having grown up in Whyalla, is there much representation for LGBTQI+ youth in the state’s regions?
It has been a very long time since I stood behind the bar at one of my family ‘s Whyalla pubs and poured a long cold beer. My memories as a young person were sweeping the sequins from the costumes of Les Girls when they performed with their Afghan hounds and separating them into their respective colours in the ‘70s. I thought all kids grew up with the same experiences I did. I did not know there was an LGBTQIA+ community, let alone that I would identify as a lesbian myself until my early 20s. I never treated people differently. There was an innocence in that.
As for youth in regional SA today, my personal observation is that there is greater awareness and support now in their own coming out journey, from friends, families and professional services. The increasing importance and acceptance of LGBTQIA+ community is reflected in Feast’s regional participation doubling its queer voice through registered events that include pride picnics, drag trivia, cabaret, camp singalong, fundraising and workshops.
The appetite for participation and representation is there and it will grow across the years.
Communities that embrace Feast Festival and support their artists and events will be signalling to their youth, you are safe here, encouraged to be your authentic self and supported to live your life freely. And that is what we need more than ever.
What are you most looking forward to with Feast?
This year’s event features 117 events across 67 venues – making it the largest in over a decade.
I’m excited about getting to as many community lead events as possible, immersing in our Adelaide Queer Film Festival and our new Feast Hub in Prospect, enjoying the Gayla, judging a fashion parade at Port Adelaide Pride Festival and experiencing the iconic Picnic in the Park.
This year is about listening, talking with people, simply being, taking feedback on what people say is the meaning of Feast for them, to ensure we are always charting our course in partnership and step with our community.
What do you think is the most important trait of a strong leader?
To be patient. Give ideas and thought space to evolve and develop without force. To understand the elements required to build a solid foundation, yet understanding the skills required to ensure sustainability, are deeply forged in the relationships nurtured with the people that you bring with you. True collaboration takes courage and time. Feast simply would not exist if it wasn’t for the participation, engagement and advocacy of people, partners, organisations and our LGBTQIA+ community.
