The annual Backbone Festival is about to unleash and unplug at their East Brisbane venue.
Filled with theatre, performance, arts, music, and events, Backbone has been a presence of youth arts in Queensland for over 30 years, supporting curious, untamed, and experimental thinkers keen to challenge their ideas and express themselves through the arts.
The theme for the festival this year is Fake News/Dumb Views, the general premise meaning it’s all about how in the news today, we’re plastered with news that isn’t necessarily true, conspiracies, and fake advertising.
“This is all about encouraging the people of Brisbane to step away from that, to have a look at what surrounds us as people through world stories,” Molly St John Mosse, one of this year’s producers, says.
The artists and performers that Molly has cultivated for Fake News/Dumb Views are all local artists. “They’ve all curated their ideas and performances to that theme,” Molly says. “There’s one group doing an installation theatre piece, targeted towards the waste we cultivate and how it’s used in society today. We’ve got one [group] on conspiracy theories.”
In challenging people’s perceptions and their adherence to media culture, it’s Molly’s hope that people attending the event will take away a different idea of how those topics should be digested and dealt with, and how they should be applied within performing cultures. “I think it will get people to start to have a look at the content they’re producing, the content that they’re digesting as users, and then how that has an impact on the world around them,” she says.
“We’re internalised. At the festival we’re trying to get people to step out of that zone, to have a look at the world around them and challenge, ‘What am I looking at? Is it real? Is it the truth? Is it my truth?’. . . Things like that.”
Image © Morgan Roberts
Presenting an array of talent at Backbone, including Sarah Stafford (from Architects Of Sound), The Naughty Corner, and Ritual Theatre, these artists were perfect, Molly says, for the themes and angle she’d envisioned for this year’s event.
“They’re all telling different truths. We’ve got a 17-year-old playwright from Toowoomba who’s presenting her piece about the farmers and the drought, and her community. We’ve got people talking about colourism and how it’s affected them.
“All of these people involved in the festival, they’re all telling stories that are relatable to our audience. It’s all about getting that connection and how you can connect through Fake News/Dumb Views, because we’re all affected.”
For Molly, she’s obsessed with the collective Yours Sincerely, who she feels attendees should keep a particular eye on. “Their show is called 'This Fantastic Plastic Planet', that’s all about waste consumption.
“I’m so interested in it. They have their work in progress, structures they’re building – it’s so relevant to the climate strike happening at the moment, and I feel like they’ll draw a lot of attention.”
Ultimately Molly feels the festival as a whole aims to get people to come for all the artists, but to also hang around in the space during the festival, adding an important element of intimacy and community to Backbone. “We want to connect the space,” she says. “We’re looking at food trucks; installations people can interact with.
“I think that gives our audience an opportunity to not only connect with the site, but to connect with each other in the space, and even the artists if they’re hanging around. I really feel community is important to share with everyone.”
