We're so pleased to announce the return of Festival Commons for the 2027 Festival, after the program's launch last year.
Now in it's second iteration, Festival Commons is an initiative that supports the next wave of IBPoC (Indigenous, Black and People of Colour) festival-makers, curators and cultural conveners in Greater Sydney and the Asia Pacific. The program assembles and empowers a collective of cultural disruptors reshaping what festivals can be.
We’re in search of community leaders who are already shaping gatherings across artist-led spaces, skate parks, community kitchens, drag houses, garage parties, club nights, Discords, TikToks and more.
Our goal is to connect and empower participants to expand the influence of their work in festivals and beyond.
Learn more about the program, and how to apply:
Impressions from the 2026 cohort
Festival Commons began as a pilot during the 2026 Festival, and in 2027 we're building on the energy of the six brilliant cultural organisers from Greater Sydney and the Asia Pacific who gathered with us last year: Bianca Hunt, Munasib Hamid, Chidiebube Uba and Dylan Goh from Sydney, Hasib Mahmud from Dhaka and Mithran R T Samuel from New Delhi.
They will all be welcomed back to join the new participants – still to be selected – and their influence on our Festival and thinking is already rippling out.
Here's what some of the 2026 cohort had to say about Festival Commons...
Dylan Goh (Sydney, Australia)
Artist / curator / dancer
“What drew me to Festival Commons was getting a behind-the-scenes insight in festival-making and connecting with an amazing cohort of culture-makers of the future.”
Munasib Hamid (Sydney)
DJ / Radiohost / Curator
“Festival Commons is all about solidarity and peer connection, which are instrumental to the work I do. I feel that I literally wouldn’t have a job without it.”
R.T. Samuel (New Dehli)
Cultural producer / Editor / Researcher
"Being part of the Festival Commons cohort has enabled me to see Sydney’s culture and audience appetite for diverse, underground cultural productions.
It’s inspired me to think about the possibility of bringing across the different communities that I belong to and work with."
Chidiebube Uba
Program producer / curator / filmmaker
“To ensure we’re creating fairer access for future diverse leaders we need strong funding, we need to provide mentorship around career progression, and we need spaces we can openly critique what’s wrong.”
Expressions of Interest are now open for Festival Commons 2027. You can learn more about the program, and how to apply for it, below.
Images of participants kindly provided by City of Sydney.