Leading Sunshine Coast contemporary arts festival, Horizon is back for its ninth year in 2025 – with a bold programme of works.
The theme in 2025 is ‘Radical Hope’.
The ten-day festival, which celebrates and connects with art, people and places in Kabi Kabi and Jinibara Country, will feature more than 50 entertaining, evocative events programmed across locations along the Sunshine Coast hinterland, coastline, skyline and streetscape.
Check out the Horizon 2025 programme.
Before things can kick off for real, it's only logical to launch proceedings with a good ol' fashioned, all-are-welcome street party. At this street party, audiences can expect live music, performance, food, bars, and art.
Among the offerings is an installation called Driveway, created and presented by visual artist Kellie O'Dempsey and ARIA Award nominee Mick Dick. Driveway, on Ocean Street, is a fusion of sound and vision. . . Part psychedelic chill space and dreamscape, fully improvised.
To learn more about what Kellie and Mick are contributing to this huge launch party event, we spoke to Kellie.
Driveway sounds like a full-on sensory trip – live drawing, dub beats, projections. . . Can you give us a taste of what people can expect to experience when they stumble across it on Opening Night?
It will be a playful psychedelic groove thing. You might first be drawn in by the sound – Mick’s dub beats are deep delay – and then the projections: vibrant, delicious shifting colour hues of pinks /oranges/ crazy lines and orbs – digital drawings unfolding and moving in real time. It’s not a gig you sit down for; it’s something you wander into and suddenly you’re a part of it. It’s a bit like a live jam session meets a visual portal. There’s no 'fourth wall' – the street becomes the stage, and everyone passing through becomes part of the atmosphere. It’s a sensory layering of sound, image, and movement. Get ready to get OUT THERE with Mick’s grooves from his new album 'Spatial Agency'.
How did you and Mick first start working together, and what’s the creative process like between you?
We first crossed paths in Byron shire many moons ago. We started working together doing live drawing performances – me welding a giant brush and ink Mick on bass – we both love improvisation and that feeling that process is super fluid and responsive. We have done gigs at MONA FOMA in Hobart, Falls Festival and performances at Museum of Brisbane.
Image © Joe Rucki
The piece is described as 'part psychedelic chill space x dreamscape' – what kinds of moods or feelings are you hoping to evoke in the audience?
A sense of playful wonder, definitely. Full of seductive echoes and trippy hypnotic images. We want people to feel both chill and a little transported, dub opens space – it’s full of echoes and deep grooves – so when paired with digital drawing, it becomes this fun, dreamy state.
What’s it like performing something so improvised and responsive in a street party setting, with people constantly flowing in and out?
Honestly, very cool and a lot of fun. The flow of people becomes part of the work. Someone stops for a second, and the light might hit them in a way that shifts the whole vibe. Watching, dancing – we never really know what’s going to happen, it's alive. Mick and I love it.
The name Driveway feels a bit unexpected for something so immersive and layered. What’s the story behind that title?
Driveway is literally in a driveway off Ocean Street for the opening night event at Horizon Festival. We loved the idea of a 'driveway' as it is this in-between space – not quite the street. It’s transitional, open-ended. That really speaks to the work we do: inviting people into a liminal space where inventiveness takes over – turning something ordinary into something magical.
Image © Joe Rucki
How does a festival like Horizon – and particularly the Opening Night Street Party – influence or shape a work like this?
We love Horizon Festival, as it creates this incredible platform where experimentation is welcomed. The Opening Night has this electric energy – the street will be alive – there are artists and interactive events positioned in bars and up and down Ocean Street. It pushes us to be bolder, to take risks. There’s something about playing in the street – it strips away the formality of 'performance' and makes it about connection. Horizon gives us the space to lean into that.
What’s it like to be involved as part of Horizon in 2025?
Great! This is going to be such a fun and edgy festival for the coast this year. Horizon has this vision of cultural curiosity and community engagement – this year with a much need theme we need today – 'Radical Hope'.
There’s this really beautiful idea of blurring boundaries – between performer and audience, sound and sight, space and story. Why is that important to you in your work?
It's important because that’s where the magic happens. The boundaries dissolve, and suddenly it’s not about 'watching' – it’s about being and experiencing . That shared experience is is all the things. Driveway asks people to stop, even for just a few minutes, and really check out changes around them. That’s a radical act these days.
The Horizon Sunshine Coast Opening Night Street Party is on at Ocean Street on 2 May. Horizon is on from 2-11 May.
