The Victorian Seniors Festival is Back

The Victorian Government’s Seniors Festival is back with a diverse selection of performances and conversations available online and on the radio. This year the festival has returned with a bang, with music, plays, talks and shows from a range of Victorian entertainers. The 2021 festival theme, Keep’n On, recognises the resilience of our seniors after a difficult 18 months.

Seniors are invited to take a walk down memory lane with Ross Skiffington and Sam Angelico, who will perform magic acts from their days at the Last Laugh Comedy Club in Melbourne.

Festival newcomers include Gunditjmara man David Arden playing his new transcendent solo material, Djoliba Rattler Quartet with their upbeat West African-inspired music, and Jacob Papadopoulos and Sarita McHarg’s enticing India meets Greece collaboration.

Cross-generational collaboration is a focus of the online In Conversation series.

Elizabeth Chong – celebrated Chinese-born Australian chef still going strong in her nineties – teams up with granddaughter Teresa Duddy, and percussionist Duré Dara chats to vocalist Carolyn Connors about of the joys of more than 20 years performing together.

This year marks the launch of the new Victorian Seniors Festival Reimagined podcast – Women, Arts and Activism – which dives into historical events and the lives of inspiring women from different cultures.

Radio content this year includes Lux Radio Theatre presenting Fergus Hume’s Victorian classic, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, and Sandy Greenwood’s powerful and award-winning play The Matriarch.

Regional Victorians will also have the opportunity to attend in-person events where restrictions allow.

This year’s festival builds on the success of the 2020 festival, which was reimagined in response to the pandemic as a longer online and radio event.

The annual seniors free public transport week – a fixture of the festival – will return once restrictions allow.

Seniors can listen in via their local community radio station or tune into video broadcasts and radio programs from the comfort of their own home until the end of the year via the festival website: seniorsonline.vic.gov.au/festival